Kali­fa Clyne

To­mor­row night's In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch fi­nals will be the most un­pre­dictable it has been in years.This was the view of mul­ti­ple so­ca artistes who spoke to the me­dia yes­ter­day fol­low­ing the draw for po­si­tions for the show on Fan­tas­tic Fri­day at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Port-of-Spain.

The show is one of the biggest events for the Car­ni­val sea­son and sees so­ca artistes from oth­er Caribbean coun­tries com­pet­ing for the crown.It be­gins at 8 pm and will fea­ture guest per­for­mances by sev­en-time win­ner, Machel Mon­tano, and this year's Chut­ney So­ca Monarch K.I.

"This is the first time in years where any­body could be a win­ner and I think every­body has to bring their game," said so­ca singer and ra­dio an­nounc­er Adri­an Hack­shaw (Third Bass).

Hack­shaw, whose song "Bum Bum" has been a favourite for so­ca lovers this Car­ni­val sea­son, said the pres­ence of new­er artistes in the com­pe­ti­tion made it more in­ter­est­ing.His opin­ion was shared by Dar­ryl Hen­ry (Farmer Nap­py) who per­forms at po­si­tion num­ber 11.He added: "You can't sleep on the young ones. You can't sleep on Voice (Adri­an St Louis). You can't sleep on Third Bass.

"The com­pe­ti­tion is wide open so you can­not feel like you will win. Every­body has to work to win."

He said so­ca mu­sic was in good hands and he was proud of all the younger artistes.Hen­ry not­ed the com­pe­ti­tion was laden with groovy songs.

"I am go­ing in there with ex­pe­ri­ence and I will be work­ing hard to win," he said.

An­oth­er sea­soned artiste, who has re­cent­ly in­tro­duced a new sound to fans, Sam­raj Jaimun­gal (Rik­ki Jai), said it was an ho­n­our to be in the fi­nals among the younger artistes.For St Lu­cian singer, Ted­dyson John, his per­for­mance in the fi­nals means much more than win­ning.

"It's a bless­ing to be rep­re­sent­ing home. It feels like a win al­ready be­cause the stage is a place you get to show­case.

"I'm re­al­ly hap­py be­cause I have a song that every­body seems to love and ac­tu­al­ly be­ing able to rep­re­sent my home on a stage with so many great artistes is great.

"I think T&T is like the New York of so­ca mu­sic so once you can make it here you can make it any­where. I'm just hap­py to make a stamp here in the mec­ca of so­ca mu­sic," he said.

The com­pe­ti­tion will be short­er this year as the cat­e­gories have been elim­i­nat­ed, leav­ing pow­er and groovy as one group.Win­ners will al­so be an­nounced in a tele­vised show the fol­low­ing day, a new change for the com­pe­ti­tion.Per­form­ers will be com­pet­ing for $1 mil­lion first prize.

Dur­ing a short ad­dress to artistes chair­man of the Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion (CPF), Pe­ter Scoon, told artistes to bring their "A Dame" as the com­pe­ti­tion was a tough one.He al­so ad­vised artistes that video record­ing by un­ac­cred­it­ed pro­fes­sion­als would not be al­lowed.

Or­der of per­for­mance

1. Cloud 5

2. Sher­win Je­re­mi­ah (M1 aka Men­ace)

3. Pe­ter Wig­gins (Pe­ter Ram)

4. Dami­an Eti­enne (Hy­pa­sounds)

5.De­von Mar­tin (Lyri­cal)

6. Nes­ta Box­ill (Sekon Sta)

7. Akeem Chance (Preedy)

8. Shur­wayne Win­ches­ter

9. Patrice Roberts

10. Ron­ny Boyce (Ptern­sky)

11. Dar­ryl Hen­ry (Farmer Nap­py)

12. Ak­il Bor­neo (5 Star Ak­il)

13. Ted­dyson John

14. Stephen­son Mar­shall (Shal Mar­shall)

15. Ri­car­do Bar­riteau (Ri­car­do Drue)

16. Adri­an Hack­shaw (Third Bass)

17. Sam­raj Jaimun­gal (Rik­ki Jai)

18. Dex­ter Stew­art (Blaxx)

19. Aaron St Louis (Voice)

20. Olatun­ji Year­wood (de­fend­ing cham­pi­on)