Shal­iza Has­sanali

Hav­ing cap­tured the 2010 In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch ti­tle with their in­fec­tious song Palance, JW and Blaze seem like­ly favourites to romp home with the Road March crown on Car­ni­val Tues­day. Be­fore a mad­den­ing crowd on Fri­day, Ja­son Williams (JW) and Blaze (An­cil Isaac) walked away with a $630,000 first prize and a Toy­ota Hilux at Queen's Park Oval, Port-of-Spain, knock­ing their main ri­val, Fay-Ann Lyons-Al­varez, in­to sec­ond place. Yes­ter­day, stake­hold­ers in the Car­ni­val and mu­sic in­dus­try pre­dict­ed a run­away Road March vic­to­ry for the pair, who have been leav­ing au­di­ences ec­sta­t­ic. Palance was writ­ten and pro­duced by Ker­nel Roberts. Fete pro­mot­er and pop­u­lar dee­jay Joel Mor­ris, Sig­nal to Noise, said hav­ing lis­tened to peo­ple at Car­ni­val par­ties, "I am quite cer­tain that they will win that Road March. I am root­ing for them." Mor­ris al­so dis­agreed that this Car­ni­val had a poor crop of songs, which left peo­ple with no choice but to ac­cept Palance as the favourite song.

"I think there was re­al­ly good mu­sic. What is hap­pen­ing is an­oth­er gen­er­a­tion is tak­ing over again. We are see­ing new faces in the busi­ness." Asked if the song could be a one-hit won­der, Mor­ris said he did not see this hap­pen­ing. "They are known for cre­ativ­i­ty. And this is not the first year they have been singing," Mor­ris point­ed out. While many see JW and Blaze as new faces of so­ca, Mor­ris not­ed that the duo had been around for years, hav­ing com­pet­ed as fi­nal­ists in the 2007 So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion. The duo has be­come a house­hold name on the air­waves, through the morn­ing show Red Hot on Red 96.7 FM. Ken Mar­lon Charles (KMC), who squared off with JW and Blaze in the com­pe­ti­tion on Fri­day, said even be­fore the re­sults were an­nounced, he con­grat­u­lat­ed both men, stat­ing that they had the crowd spell­bound and rest­less. "They have the biggest song for the Car­ni­val. They re­al­ly put out a good pre­sen­ta­tion."

ABOVE: ?Ron­nie McIn­tosh, left, on stage with KMC wrap­ping up the com­pe­ti­tion.

Well-known fete pro­mot­er George Singh said his Road March choice was Palance. "The fact that they won So­ca Monarch sends a strong sig­nal that this is the song peo­ple want to hear on the streets for Car­ni­val." Fete pro­mot­er Cliff Har­ris said so far JW and Blaze were in a class by them­selves to win the Road March ti­tle. Har­ris said what gave the men the edge over their ri­vals was the dif­fer­ence in their song. "Peo­ple have grown so ac­cus­tomed to the jump and wave lines for Car­ni­val that the word palance made a dif­fer­ence." Kwe­si Hop­kin­son, man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of Scorch Mag­a­zine, and a for­mer pro­gramme di­rec­tor, said: "I think it is ground-break­ing." Hop­kin­son said with­in the last few weeks JW and Blaze won the hearts of fans, which placed them in a po­si­tion to top­ple Fay-Ann. With re­gards to the Road March, Hop­kin­son said JW and Blaze were no doubt a cut above the rest.