KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

King of So­ca Machel Mon­tano has re­ceived the Keys to the City of Kingston, Ja­maica, in recog­ni­tion of his mu­sic ca­reer, which has pos­i­tive­ly in­flu­enced fans in the Caribbean and the world.

Mon­tano was ho­n­oured as Ja­maica cel­e­brat­ed its In­de­pen­dence Day at the coun­try’s Na­tion­al Sta­di­um on Sun­day.

“Hap­py 61st to Ja­maica and to Trinidad and To­ba­go,” Mon­tano said af­ter re­ceiv­ing the award in front of a packed sta­di­um.

“I am very proud to say I was born in Trinidad and To­ba­go but the first time I ever went to school was in Ja­maica. I went to school at Mona Ba­sic, my broth­er went to Hope Val­ley Ex­per­i­men­tal. So Machel is not just Trinida­di­an, proud Caribbean, Ja­maican, proud African. If you proud say yay yay proud and strong.”

In 1976, at the age of two, Machel and his broth­er Mar­cus, who was four at the time, moved to Ja­maica with their par­ents Eliz­a­beth “La­dy” Mon­tano and fa­ther Win­ston “Mon­ty” Mon­tano. The se­nior Mon­tanos were both for­mer teach­ers – La­dy pur­sued a bach­e­lor’s de­gree in ed­u­ca­tion while Mon­ty took up Ge­ol­o­gy at Mona Cam­pus.

“We took our chil­dren with us and con­tin­ued to teach them our val­ues,” Eliz­a­beth said yes­ter­day.

“There is a man­i­fes­ta­tion for every ac­tion. Love one an­oth­er. This has been Machel’s mis­sion since he was a lit­tle child. If you lis­ten to his mu­sic the com­mon thread is al­ways love, uni­ty and peace.”

She added, “Machel has worked with about 25 Ja­maican artistes open­ing them up to so­ca mu­sic. He al­so worked with the leg­endary By­ron Lee. He con­tin­ues to work with Ja­maican artistes and oth­er artistes from around the world. This is a very proud mo­ment com­ing to fruition.”

Yes­ter­day, the in­ter­na­tion­al en­ter­tain­er took to his In­sta­gram page to high­light his lat­est achieve­ment.

“Thank you, Ja­maica, for the key to the city and your hearts as I def­i­nite­ly felt the love in the 38,000 strong sta­di­um last night,” Mon­tano said.

“What a proud mo­ment for Caribbean uni­ty and cul­ture. Reg­gae, so­ca, dance­hall, afro, Asian all present in a cel­e­bra­tion of mu­sic,” he added.

Ja­maican Prime Min­is­ter An­drew Hol­ness pre­sent­ed the ci­ta­tion to Mon­tano amidst screams from the crowd.

Prime Min­is­ter Hol­ness al­so high­light­ed that both Ja­maica and Trinidad and To­ba­go were cel­e­brat­ing 61 years of In­de­pen­dence this year.

“We are a part of a Caribbean fam­i­ly and one of the things that joins us to­geth­er as one peo­ple is mu­sic,” Hol­ness said.

“Mu­sic is uni­ty and your mu­sic is about the uni­ty of the Caribbean peo­ple. We are so proud of you and it is our great plea­sure to have be­stowed the Keys of the City of Kingston to you as an Am­bas­sador of Caribbean mu­sic and Caribbean peo­ple. God bless you.”

CEO Kingston and St An­drew Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tion (KSAMC) Robert Hill read the res­o­lu­tion on stage.

He said: “The Kingston and St An­drew Mu­nic­i­pal Cor­po­ra­tions proud­ly presents the keys of the City of Kingston to Machel Je­sus Mon­tano, in recog­ni­tion of his ster­ling, awe­some and icon­ic ca­reer in mu­sic, over these many years which has pos­i­tive­ly in­flu­enced many ador­ing fans across the Caribbean and the world, in­clud­ing many Ja­maicans who con­tin­ue to en­joy his en­dur­ing lega­cy.”

Ac­cord­ing to the Ja­maica Ob­serv­er, KSAMC coun­cil­lors gave full ap­proval to the re­quest from the Min­istry of Cul­ture, Gen­der, En­ter­tain­ment and Sport, and specif­i­cal­ly cur­rent min­is­ter, Olivia “Bab­sy” Grange, that Mon­tano be ho­n­oured.

Mon­tano went on to give his usu­al high-en­er­gy per­for­mance, which had the en­tire sta­di­um danc­ing.