MATTHEW CHIN

Re­porter

matthew.chin@guardian.co.tt

Bmo­bile rolled out its 2024 edi­tion of So­ca in b Square in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

De­spite the mid­day heat, so­ca lovers trad­ed the mun­dane con­fines of their work­spaces and air-con­di­tion­ing for the en­er­gy and free­dom that can on­ly come by watch­ing some of so­ca’s biggest stars on stage. Artistes like Ker­win Du Bois, Lyrikal, Olatun­ji and so­ca princess Nailah Black­man, in­fused spec­ta­tors with an en­er­gy that would be re­turned to them through the singing, danc­ing and wav­ing of flags among the crowd.

Be­fore head­ing on­to the stage for her per­for­mance with Lyrikal, Black­man shared with Guardian Me­dia that this was her sec­ond time per­form­ing at b Square for the sea­son. The artiste said Wood­ford Square held a very spe­cial mean­ing to her.

“I am ex­hil­a­rat­ed. We did (b Square) in To­ba­go and now we’re here in Trinidad on the grounds in the fa­mous Wood­ford Square. So, it’s my first time as a bmo­bile am­bas­sador per­form­ing on b Square. It (Wood­ford Square) was one of my first per­for­mances I ever did when I came out as an artiste, so it just feels so full cir­cle to be back here in a big way!” she said.

When asked if she had any­thing spe­cial planned for pa­trons, she was adamant that all her per­for­mances were spe­cial.

“First of all, every­thing I’m go­ing to do on stage is spe­cial. (Lyrikal and I) are gonna do the epic bmo­bile jin­gle, Iz Ah Vibe,” she said.

Act­ing as­sis­tant gen­er­al man­ag­er, Con­sumer Sales, of bmo­bile, Kashif Greaves was grate­ful for the turnout and thanked cus­tomers for their loy­al­ty and com­mit­ment to the ser­vice.

“We’re so ex­treme­ly hap­py that this event is hap­pen­ing again. We want to say to our cus­tomers thank you for be­ing loy­al. And we, as the lo­cal in­dige­nous brand, want to sup­port cul­ture with noth­ing bet­ter than through the mu­sic. We’re so hap­py to be part­nered with Nailah Black­man as our am­bas­sador, our so­ca princess. This is the on­ly free event of this na­ture,” Greaves said.

Al­though he was not able to per­form his so­ca banger Ben­derel­la due to time con­straints, Ker­win Du Bois took note of the spec­ta­tors who came out in their num­bers, con­sid­er­ing it a tes­ti­mo­ny of their love for so­ca and Car­ni­val.

“Peo­ple run­ning away from work to take a lil’ wine on the side. I am here to be part of the vi­bra­tion of Car­ni­val. Who would ex­pect this to be hap­pen­ing at this time of day in hot sun? Peo­ple are show­ing their love for so­ca and Car­ni­val,” Du Bois said.

One pa­tron from the US, Kaiya Adams, who is vis­it­ing this coun­try for the first time, con­fessed that this was her first ex­pe­ri­ence of b Square. She al­so en­joyed Black­man’s per­for­mance of Best Self.

“It’s new, this is my first time ac­tu­al­ly here (Trinidad). I’m from Amer­i­ca, my fam­i­ly is from here. But me, be­ing 18, this is my first time ex­pe­ri­enc­ing (b Square),” Adams said.

When asked what was her high­light of the con­cert, she said, with­out paus­ing, “I like Nailah, her en­er­gy is re­al­ly nice.”