Ryan Ba­choo

Lead Ed­i­tor-News­gath­er­ing

ryan.ba­choo@cnc3.co.tt

Reign­ing Chut­ney So­ca Monarch cham­pi­on, Machel Mon­tano, will re­turn to de­fend his crown when the fi­nal of the com­pe­ti­tion takes place on Feb­ru­ary 8 at Skin­ner Park in San Fer­nan­do. This was con­firmed as Southex launched the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch last evening, with Guardian Me­dia’s Sangeet 106.1FM be­com­ing its of­fi­cial part­ner. It will be a day-night event start­ing with a pre-show at 4 pm. The show will end at 12 mid­night and, for the 11th year run­ning, will re­main free to the pub­lic.

The semi­fi­nal round will take place on Jan­u­ary 30 at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, with 25 artistes to be se­lect­ed.

The Chut­ney So­ca Monarch al­so an­nounced it will add an­oth­er ma­jor ti­tle that will be up for grabs at the Grand Fi­nal of the 2026 Chut­ney So­ca Monarch. Five years ago, the Queen of Chut­ney So­ca was added, and over the last five years, five dif­fer­ent Queens of Chut­ney So­ca have been crowned.

In 2026, Southex will add an­oth­er ti­tle–The Tra­di­tion­al Chut­ney So­ca Monarch. This new ti­tle will be in ad­di­tion to the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch and the Queen of Chut­ney So­ca. In a state­ment, Southex said, “We be­lieve that the Tra­di­tion­al Monarch will be well re­ceived with­in the Chut­ney So­ca in­dus­try as we seek to recog­nise and not for­get the tra­di­tion­al el­e­ments which re­main alive with­in the genre known as Chut­ney So­ca.”

At the launch last evening, Chut­ney So­ca Monarch pro­mot­er George Singh said, “We be­lieve that this ti­tle will be re­ceived well among the artistes and it is an im­por­tant one as we seek to recog­nise and not for­get the tra­di­tion­al el­e­ments which re­main alive with­in the genre known as Chut­ney So­ca.”

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 60 artistes have reg­is­tered for the com­pe­ti­tion, and there will be a ‘live’ in-per­son screen­ing for artistes this week­end at GM Labs in Port-of-Spain.

Ear­li­er in his re­marks, Singh stat­ed, “Our view of Car­ni­val is that it is a plat­form for de­vel­op­ment, a plat­form to bring out our cre­ativ­i­ty and the op­por­tu­ni­ties that each year presents. Car­ni­val rep­re­sents the on­go­ing an­nu­al de­vel­op­ment of our cul­tur­al in­dus­tries. It rep­re­sents for me a sea­son for de­vel­op­ment and growth of the Caribbean mu­sic in­dus­try. It rep­re­sents an ex­pres­sion of the cre­ative mind, the com­ing to­geth­er of peo­ple, and the fu­sion of cul­tures and mu­sic. It rep­re­sents uni­ty! Car­ni­val is an in­vest­ment in our peo­ple and our coun­try. Trinidad and To­ba­go chut­ney so­ca mu­sic, and by ex­ten­sion the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch, is a true rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

Mean­while, brand man­ag­er of Sangeet 106.1FM, Sha­reeza Ali, said, “We are tru­ly hap­py to have Chut­ney So­ca Monarch where it be­longs–home, at Sangeet 106.1FM, the home of lo­cal mu­sic. For us, this part­ner­ship goes be­yond me­dia sup­port. It is about pro­vid­ing a plat­form where every artiste, mu­si­cian, and con­trib­u­tor to the cul­ture can show­case their voice and their sto­ry.”

She added, “This year’s theme, “Our Peo­ple. Our Cul­ture. Our Mu­sic,” per­fect­ly cap­tures the essence of Chut­ney So­ca Monarch. Chut­ney mu­sic has al­ways been root­ed in our peo­ple–their tra­di­tions, their jour­neys, and their cel­e­bra­tions-and it con­tin­ues to unite gen­er­a­tions through mu­sic.”