Kali­fa Clyne

The va­ca­tion is over, says five-time So­ca Monarch win­ner Austin Lyons a.k.a. Su­perBlue. In an in­ter­view yes­ter­day, the so­ca leg­end de­scribed his ab­sence from the com­pet­i­tive are­na for over a decade as a va­ca­tion. The hol­i­day, he said, end­ed last year when he was ap­proached to per­form at the So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tion as part of a "so­ca leg­ends" seg­ment of the show.

"Last year I came to per­form as a guest artiste and I re­alised it was time to come back to the mu­sic. "I am just here to demon­strate with the so­ca," said Lyons. "I have to go on tour and rep­re­sent so­ca. Car­ni­val 2013 needs to be the year we make his­to­ry in this coun­try."

Su­perBlue said he felt the need to re-en­ter the are­na to show there was space for every­one in the in­dus­try. "I want the bad boys to put down their guns and make mu­sic," he said. He said his first so­ca re­lease for 2013, Fan­tas­tic Fri­day, was a salute to both Ras Shorty I–orig­i­na­tor of so­ca mu­sic–and So­ca Monarch pro­mot­er William Munro for their con­tri­bu­tions to the so­ca mu­sic in­dus­try.

The song is not the on­ly one Lyons is prepar­ing to re­lease for this year's Car­ni­val sea­son. Be­fore the in­ter­view Su­perBlue was work­ing on a groovy song called Spank­ing, and said there were oth­ers in the works. "We have some­thing spe­cial in this coun­try. Car­ni­val in Trinidad is the biggest and the best. Where else can you gath­er so many peo­ple to be hap­py to­geth­er? In the Mid­dle East? No."

Lyons said he felt blessed. "I am singing. My daugh­ters are singing. Maybe just now my grand­daugh­ter will be singing," he said. His daugh­ters are so­ca singers Ter­ri Lyons and for­mer So­ca Monarch Fay-Ann Lyons-Al­varez, who is mar­ried to fel­low artiste Bun­ji Gar­lin (Ian Al­varez). They are the par­ents of a three-year-old daugh­ter.

"That is a bless­ing. I could nev­er lose. I have al­ready won," Lyons said. Su­perBlue will be en­ter­ing both the Groovy and Pow­er So­ca Monarch com­pe­ti­tions for Feb­ru­ary 8.