I would like to kindly appeal to the National Carnival Commission to seriously do something about the Road March competition.
For quite some time, the competition has been narrowed down to a one-man or two-person show and it has now become extremely boring and repetitive. As a matter of fact—well it has been like that for quite a few years—at times it was easy to see that the winner was already chosen long before Carnival Monday had arrived.
To many people, the alleged “soca mafia” is still at work, running things and choosing what should or should not be played, much to the anger of other artists trying in vain to get some airplay.
To others, every year there is a simply a limited choice of songs for the road. There are some songs that are more appropriate for a party while the few high-energy songs are better suited to cross the big stage.
On one hand, it can be assumed that we cannot blame certain artists for winning the Road March every year since time, talent and energy would have gone into providing a song for the masqueraders to enjoy, but on the other hand, if the same person keeps winning, how is there any growth in the competition? Or has there been any growth in the competition? Is there any fairness in the country to make both chutney and soca artists feel included? Is the competition evolving at all? The main answer is no.
There were times in the past when the winner of the Power Soca category would be an automatic choice for the Road March, but even then there were artists who never competed and their songs were good enough for the road but sadly they never got any airplay. Steups, talk about ridiculousness in this land eh!
The International Soca Monarch has undergone changes, the Calypso Monarch has had a different winner for most of it and sometimes the person who many thought would win would have come third or fourth. Or in some cases, the person with a popular tune would not even make it in the finals. The Chutney Soca Monarch has had some changes so why hasn’t there been any changes to the Road March competition?
Why Trinbago why? I would like to also ask if the Road March is still needed and what purpose does it really serve? How long will other artists continue to be left out because of biasness?
I would like to suggest that we have a J’Ouvert competition for the best J’Ouvert song and that we should replace the Road March competition with the People’s Tune or the People’s Choice for 2017. We have been getting a lot of songs with iron and brass or with a rhythm section for J’Ouvert, so maybe that is another avenue that can be explored.
To the National Carnival Commission, it is high time that things change, it is high time that we see a difference to keep other artists interested rather than hear them constantly crying injustice and biasness. It is time to change the Road March competition; it is time to hear a wider variety of songs for Carnival Monday and Tuesday.
Kes the band has also suggested that there should be a change in the competition and it is time to start the conversation, it is time to give the power of choice back to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and not a selected group or an elite person or persons.
M T John,
Port-of-Spain
