Three employees of Guardian Media Limited are in the running for top honours at today's 8th Annual Soca Awards Ceremony. Sunday Guardian reporter Michelle Loubon and Vibe CT 105.1FM DJs Dr Ross (Rossanno Chaitsingh), and Kurt Williams of the same frequency, have made the honour roll at the function carded to take place at the Lord Kitchener Calypso Auditorium at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain. The event is being staged by the Soca Awards Organisation. Loubon, who composed the ditty titled One For Tito with vocals by Edwin Ayoung (Crazy), was nominated for the Best Soca Parang of the Year award. She being challenged by Poser (Slylvester Lockhart), with Give Dem; Myron B (Myron Bruce) with Greedy Greedy; Blaxx (Dexter Stewart) with Kenny; and Dee Diamond (Denesian Moses) with Y Christmas. Dr Ross and Williams were among five vying for the Best Radio Soca DJ of the Year Award. Marlon Mr Music from Soca 919 FM, Sean Bowen–Sweet 100.1 FM, and Universal Sound/ KG–Wack Radio were the other contenders.
The winners of the awards were determined through the Soca Award online voting system, which began earlier this month in 29 categories. Voting ended last Monday.
Dr Ross, who is no stranger to DJ awards, said he played soca music simply because he loved it. He expressed gratitude to the management of VibeCT 105 for providing the platform for him to showcase his soca mixing styles. "You could only be good at something that you love. I love soca. They recognise that. I will continue to strive to promote soca," said Dr Ross. Colin Jackman, president and chief executive officer of the Soca Awards Organisation said a number of artistes got their break on the Soca Awards stage. "The Soca Awards Organisation has and will always be taking soca higher. A lot of artistes who didn't see the vision (for Soca Awards) are seeing it now. When they make music today they are doing so to get an award," he said.
Despite the growth of the music production, Jackman said sponsorship remained a major hurdle. Sponsors, he said, "just don't believe in the product. They want to see the growth of the awards, before they sign to it. "Sponsors always have excuses, but now they are coming into our kingdom and they are sponsoring much better than before. Soon they will be begging."
The Soca Awards 2010 will feature live performances by Swallow (Rupert Philo) Blaxx (Dexter Stewart), Beckett (Alston Cyrus), Marvin Lewis, SW Storm (Sina Wayne), Dee Diamond (Denesian Moses), Soca Elvis (Michael Salloum) Rita Jones, Codrington Pan Family and Militant.