Pe­ter Ray Blood

When KI won the In­ter­na­tion­al Chut­ney So­ca Monarch with Sin­gle For­ev­er in 2012, crit­ics spoke high­ly of his po­ten­tial as a fu­ture star, not just in the chut­ney are­na, but as a so­ca singer as well. Since then, KI–whose re­al name Kris Vee­shal Per­sad –has shown that his band JMC 3Veni is a force in the so­ca and chut­ney busi­ness.

At his first so­lo con­cert in 2013, I Am KI, he demon­strat­ed the abil­i­ty to blend his tal­ents as a band­leader, mu­si­cian and singer.

The con­cert fea­tured Machel Mon­tano, Dru­patee and Neval Chate­lal. KI was giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to be lead mu­si­cian and pro­duc­er of 3Veni. He used this ex­pe­ri­ence to pro­duce the band's last five al­bums, and col­lab­o­rat­ed with Mad­men Pro­duc­tions on the mas­sive hit In Front of Meh by Umi Mar­cano.

En­ter­ing the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch for the first time in 2010, KI placed fourth with the suc­cess­ful hit Catch Meh Lo­vah (Suni­ta & Na­dia). The 2011 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion saw him place third with his song No More Rum Again with over 10,000 votes. He has since then be­came one of the most re­quest­ed crossover per­form­ers at ma­jor fes­ti­vals/car­ni­vals world­wide.

This Car­ni­val, Per­sad will be en­ter­ing the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion. The songs he has re­leased so far are Pro­fes­sor Feter, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Na­dia Bat­son and Lyrikal, and Run­away, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Olatun­ji.

ABOUT KI

KI is the son of key­boardist, band­leader and pro­duc­er Veeren­dra Per­sad, and fol­lowed in his fa­ther's foot­steps when he start­ed play­ing the key­boards at the age of sev­en.

At the age of eight, he won the in­au­gur­al Chil­dren of Mas­tana com­pe­ti­tion.

He mi­grat­ed to Toron­to Cana­da at nine. KI at­tend­ed the El So­cor­ro Hin­du School. In Toron­to, he at­tend­ed the Acad­e­my for Tech­nol­o­gy in Toron­to.

KI re­lax­es with play­ing Fi­fa Soc­cer on his Playsta­tion. In fact, 3Veni's tour bus was mod­i­fied so that KI could play Fi­fa games to and from gigs.

KI loves to cook most of all. He told the T&T Guardian, "If I am not do­ing mu­sic or play­ing foot­ball, you will find me in the kitchen, al­ways ex­per­i­ment­ing with some­thing new or mak­ing one of my favourite dish­es. My favourite foods in­clude crab and callaloo, lasagna and oil down."

KI is al­so a bit of a movie buff and among his favourite flicks are Com­ing to Amer­i­ca and An­chor­man.