GYASI MER­RIQUE

Se­nior Re­porter

gyasi.mer­rique@cnc3.co.tt

Ap­prox­i­mate­ly 1,500 fete-go­ers and so­ca lovers at So­ka in Mo­ka—The Evo­lu­tion on Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 1, wit­nessed the first ma­jor ap­pear­ance by so­ca songstress Patrice Roberts for Car­ni­val 2024. It was al­so Roberts’ first per­for­mance since the sud­den pass­ing of her fi­ancé and fel­low so­ca star Ri­car­do Drue on De­cem­ber 12 in his home­land, An­tigua.

The emo­tions were pal­pa­ble at the St An­drews Golf Club, Mo­ka, Mar­aval, but through it all, Roberts de­liv­ered a typ­i­cal­ly en­er­getic set lit­tered with hit songs, in­clud­ing her 2024 lead­ing con­tri­bu­tion Anx­i­ety, which opened and end­ed her 30-minute show.

Mo­ments af­ter she be­gan her per­for­mance in Mo­ka, Roberts in­struct­ed the A Team Band to “take it low” and over the song’s melod­ic rifts, she bared her heart to the So­ka in Mo­ka au­di­ence.

“Hap­py new year to each and every­one of you,” she said.

“This year broke me, I ain’t go lie. I cried but most im­por­tant­ly, I didn’t break at all, at all. Be­cause of the love you have for me I am stand­ing here.”

The 160-beats-per-minute song, Anx­i­ety was re­leased just four days be­fore Drue’s pass­ing but its lyrics have this un­can­ny re­sem­blance to a trib­ute song.

The open­ing line goes, “As I lay in my bed with my head to the ceil­ing. Say I’m drown­ing alone and I’m lost in my feel­ings.

“Some­body send me a sign ‘cause you know that I need it. Car­ni­val come back to me ‘cause you know you’re my heal­ing.”

Roberts though, soon re­it­er­at­ed the song’s true mean­ing and gen­e­sis in her own strug­gles with men­tal health.

“This is re­al life ex­pe­ri­ence,” she stat­ed. “You see your men­tal state? It is most im­por­tant. Don’t make any­body or any­thing de­ter you from what you want to do in this life­time. Be­cause God has a way of turn­ing around things and mak­ing it in­to your favour,” she said.

“What­ev­er I want to do in this life­time, I go hard for it. I go hard. And once some­thing is not for you, God does take it away to­tal­ly. Some­times we ques­tion things in life. We ques­tion. It hurts. But God knows best and I be­lieve that God has some­thing greater for me,” she told the au­di­ence.

Roberts al­so held noth­ing back when she fi­nal­ly ad­dressed the loss of her fi­ancé.

“I’m OK. It’s tough. I lost my loved one. I lost one, I’m go­ing to get one. The Fa­ther knows what’s best. Right now, I just want to say rest in peace to the per­son that I loved. I gave this man every­thing that I had, every­thing in me, but Fa­ther God has a next plan.”

As she ap­peared to be hold­ing back tears, Roberts con­tin­ued “You see my heart, it sin­cere and you guys see right through me. I love you guys, I thank you for sup­port­ing me be­cause Jah knows I was suf­fer­ing in si­lence. I’m not go­ing to stay silent no more for no­body.”

So­ka In Mo­ka 2024 al­so fea­tured an ap­pear­ance by Aaron “Voice” St Louis who joined Roberts on stage for a per­for­mance of their 2024 song, Car­ni­val Day.

Oth­er acts in­clud­ed Ray­mond Ram­nar­ine with Dil e Nadan, D All Starz Band fea­tur­ing Col­lege Boy Jesse, Viking Ding Dong and Mi­cal Te­ja, guest artistes Jaiga, Olatun­ji, Na­dia Bat­son, Shal, Preedy, Bass aka Tri­lo G and Jadel among oth­ers.