Zahra Gor­don

The In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion is the T&T Gram­mys and there­fore re­quires sac­ri­fice and ded­i­ca­tion, says so­ca singer Denise "Saucy Wow" Bel­fon. Bel­fon, who has been a fi­nal­ist in the com­pe­ti­tion 13 times, made this com­ment in re­sponse to news of the "ex­clu­siv­i­ty" clause added to the com­pe­ti­tion's rules for 2013.

A press re­lease sent out on Thurs­day by Caribbean Pres­tige Foun­da­tion ex­ec­u­tive chair­man William Munro said fi­nal­ists would be re­quired to per­form ex­clu­sive­ly at the So­ca Monarch show on "Fan­tas­tic Fri­day" next year. The ban starts on Fri­day, Feb­ru­ary 8, and ends at 8 am on Feb­ru­ary 9, the re­lease said.

The re­lease al­so said: "Fail­ure to com­ply with this mu­tu­al­ly agreed up­on amend­ment will re­sult in a sig­nif­i­cant penal­ty that may im­pact your ex­pect­ed earn­ings." Bel­fon was one of many con­tes­tants who at­tend­ed meet­ings over the past few months and she said that she had no ob­jec­tion to the change.

Pro­mot­er wel­comes Car­ni­val changes

"I have no prob­lem with the change, be­cause at the end of the day, this is some­thing we are tak­ing to the world. I am a cul­prit of per­form­ing the day be­fore and hav­ing no voice for So­ca Monarch, and be­ing hoarse on fi­nal night is un­ac­cept­able," she said. Her sen­ti­ments were echoed by oth­er artistes such as Na­dia Bat­son, who said So­ca Monarch was one of the "biggest and best stages for Car­ni­val."

Bat­son has made it to the fi­nal for the past six years and told the T&T Guardian in a tele­phone in­ter­view she'd per­formed in two places on a Fan­tas­tic Fri­day on­ly once. "I wouldn't do that again, be­cause I un­der­stand the im­por­tance of the stage. We need to take this so much more se­ri­ous­ly, be­cause this is one of the best stages to get your songs to the world and not just T&T."

An­oth­er so­ca artiste and com­peti­tor con­tact­ed for com­ment said Caribbean Pres­tige was en­ti­tled to have rules for its com­pe­ti­tion es­pe­cial­ly if the com­pa­ny per­ceived a con­flict of in­ter­est. Munro said prize mon­ey for the com­pe­ti­tion has been in­creased by 50 per cent for the fifth to tenth places.

"That is three times more than they would make in any fete on that night," he said in a tele­phone in­ter­view. He added: "We don't want any­body to be ad­ver­tised as singing some­where else on Fri­day. Fan­tas­tic Fri­day is our Fri­day,"?he said.