DROP: So­ca cruise show to start 2021

SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

shar­lene.ram­per­sad@guardian.co.tt

Al­though he broke some hearts on Mon­day night when he closed the cur­tains on his icon­ic Machel Mon­day con­cert, so­ca su­per­star Machel Mon­tano is not fin­ished yet.

Ad­dress­ing thou­sands of fans at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mon­tano an­nounced a brand new event for Car­ni­val 2021- a so­ca cruise called ‘Melé, Car­ni­val at sea.’

“This is the last Machel Mon­day but if I tell you big­ger things com­ing, you think I could do some­thing bet­ter than this?” Mon­tano asked. “I’m out to take you out on a ride in 2021, imag­ine me on the shore, Machel Mon­day is the shore, we go­ing to leave the shore be­hind and go­ing out to the sea.”

Mon­tano said the event will see him team­ing up with mas band Tribe for an all-in­clu­sive cruise that will set sail from Flori­da.

In the de­scrip­tion on the event web­site, Melé is de­scribed as a once-in-a-life­time ex­pe­ri­ence and fans can pre-reg­is­ter by com­plet­ing a form on the web­site to book a cab­in on­board the cruise.

“In 2021, Machel Mon­tano x TRIBE Car­ni­val brings you a new ad­ven­ture, a once-in-a-life­time ex­pe­ri­ence; the buck­et-list item you nev­er knew you need­ed to check off; the next-lev­el of mas,” the web­site says in the “About the cruise” sec­tion.

The con­cert it­self was a night su­per­charged with emo­tions, as fans crowd­ed in­to the sta­di­um from as ear­ly 6.30 pm, brav­ing an al­most con­stant driz­zle of rain through­out the night to dance, jump and wine in the so­ca king­dom.  

Mon­tano kept spir­its high with throw­back per­for­mances of his great­est so­ca hits through­out the years.

Joined by some thir­ty oth­er per­form­ers through­out the night, from Tar­rus Ri­ley to An­gela Hunte to Afro B - there was not a dull mo­ment at the show.

Most of his fans wore white- an­swer­ing Mon­tano’s call for them to dress for his wed­ding. Their out­fits ranged from sim­ple- jeans and t-shirts- to elab­o­rate for­mal wear, some even don­ning three-piece suits and ties to jump up to their favourite so­ca hits. Thou­sands of fans were gift­ed with slices of wed­ding cake on en­ter­ing the venue. 

Machel kept his promise to fans to get mar­ried in front of them- a sec­ond wed­ding in just days for him­self and his long­time sweet­heart, Re­nee Butch­er. The two were legal­ly wed on Feb­ru­ary 14 in a sim­ple civ­il cer­e­mo­ny at the new­ly re­fur­bished Red House in Port-of-Spain - cre­at­ing his­to­ry by be­ing the first cou­ple to get mar­ried at the Red House in 20 years. 

At the con­cert, in an elab­o­rate cer­e­mo­ny of­fi­ci­at­ed by Pas­tor Clive Dot­tin, the two held hands and re­cit­ed vows to each oth­er, be­fore Dot­tin once again pro­nounced them mar­ried.

The pair were crowned with Hum­ming­bird crowns be­fore they shared a kiss and danced in front of Mon­tano’s ador­ing fans to bring the al­most six-hour show to an end - and to close off a decade of Machel Mon­day’s.