Shas­tri Boodan

The 2023 fi­nals of the In­tel­lec­tu­al Chut­ney Monarch will be in ho­n­our of Black Stal­in (Leroy Cal­liste) and Sun­dar Popo (Suni­lal Popo Ba­ho­ra).

Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Chut­ney Foun­da­tion of T&T (NCFTT) Dr Vi­jay Ram­lal-Rai said "Stal­in's ren­di­tion of a Trib­ute to Sun­dar Popo would go down as the epit­o­me of what an In­tel­lec­tu­al Chut­ney song should be about.

"The peo­ple of the re­gion have lost this great artiste. His songs ap­peal to every­one and can be played at any time. Black Man Feel­ing to Par­ty can be heard at near­ly all events and we as Caribbean peo­ple iden­ti­fy with that song."

Sundar Popo

Ram­lal-Rai said the NCFTT ex­pects to pay over $500,000 in prize mon­ey for the com­pe­ti­tion on Feb­ru­ary 18 at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do.

The songs for this year's com­pe­ti­tion, he said, can be on any top­ic but must not ridicule any race, re­li­gion or gen­der. Songs can be in Eng­lish and flavoured with any oth­er lan­guage and must have the chut­ney mu­sic's melody/rhythm. Songs must be three to four min­utes in length. They ex­pect to choose 15 out of some 60 prospec­tive singers.

"We are merg­ing with Randy Glas­gow Pro­duc­tions and the Chut­ney Land event on the same night at the same venue...We have al­so re­quest­ed fund­ing from var­i­ous agen­cies, and we are hope­ful that they would re­spond favourably for this, the Moth­er of All Car­ni­vals ac­cord­ing to the NCC chair­man."

In­ter­est­ed artistes must call 624-1024 or send mes­sages via What­sApp to 788-4668.