Clyde Pa­trong, who goes by the so­bri­quet Lord Have Mer­cy, took top ho­n­ours at the in­au­gur­al Va­len­cia Parang Day which took place last month. The event cul­mi­nat­ed with a prize giv­ing cer­e­mo­ny on the eve of the Feast of Epiphany, Jan­u­ary 5.

For Pa­trong, it was the best way to close the Christ­mas sea­son, as he was pre­sent­ed his prizes which in­clude a record­ing con­tract with CASTT as well as cash.

Pa­trong, a res­i­dent of Va­len­cia, topped sev­en oth­er fi­nal­ists who in­clud­ed fa­mil­iar names in the mu­sic are­na such as Suzanne Wal­lace, a for­mer lead vo­cal­ist with Sound Rev­o­lu­tion and lead singer with Di­vine Echoes; An­gela Ra­moutar, a cast mem­ber of Di­vas Ca­lyp­so Cabaret and chut­ney so­ca singer.

Al­so com­pet­ing were fel­low Va­len­cia na­tives Ky­lon “Kpress” Prescott and Shane “Smalls” Mitchell. Earl “Nice Man” Haynes; Ryan “Ha­vatyme” McKen­zie, In­grid “La­dy In­grid” Ig­natius round­ed off the list of com­peti­tors.

Each per­former was asked to do a cov­er ver­sion of any parang so­ca song and an orig­i­nal com­po­si­tion.

“We were very pleased with the out­come,” said Joey Rivers, co-or­di­na­tor of the event, which was held at D Ship Hub, Oro Street, Va­len­cia.

“We had our pro­ces­sion af­ter Mass, we had food, we had craft, and of course, we had the com­pe­ti­tion. We would like to make this an an­nu­al event, so we are ask­ing from now for sup­port for this ven­ture.

“Oro Street has been the lo­ca­tion for many cel­e­bra­tions that ob­serve Car­ni­val, East­er, Eman­ci­pa­tion, In­de­pen­dence and Re­pub­lic days. We are go­ing to en­sure that we add Va­len­cia Parang Day as an­oth­er way of gen­er­at­ing com­mu­ni­ty spir­it, to show off what Va­len­cia has to of­fer and re­store the rep­u­ta­tion of our com­mu­ni­ty as a safe one.”

Va­len­cia Parang Day re­sults:

1. Lord Have Mer­cy

2. Nice Man

3. Suzanne Wal­lace

4. Ha­vatyme

5. Orig­i­nal Smalls

6. An­gela Ra­moutar

7. K-Press

8. La­dy In­grid