Fay Ann back at Soca Monarch helm

Fay Ann Lyons-Alvarez is back as the chairman of the International Soca Monarch.

In a phone interview with Newsday on Wednesday, Lyons-Alvarez promised to reveal more on Friday, but said it was nice being the competition’s chairman again.

“At the end of the day, the artistes have faith that I have the competition and their best interest at heart. It was also awesome to actually see TT get represented everywhere Mr Killa (Hollice Mapp) went. He bigged up TT and the brand every Carnival he hit worldwide.”

Mr Killa is the reigning Power Soca Monarch, while Marvin “Swappi” Davis is the reigning Groovy Soca Monarch.

Lyons-Alvarez also said it was amazing to see people’s renewed interest in Soca Monarch, music and the art form.

“It is pretty exciting,” she said.

She added that, as chairman, she has plans for innovations for this year’s competition.

On Wednesday, Geoffrey Wharton-Lake, one of the franchise’s directors, said the annual compeition is on. He spoke to exclusively to Newsday via phone on Wednesday.

He also confirmed that Lyons-Alvarez will once again be the chairman.

While he promised to provide further details about the competition and its launch in a press release on Friday, Wharton-Lake said “The feedback I have been getting from Fay Ann is that there are a lot of foreigners that are showing interest in competing this year.”

He explained, “We have been kind of late in delivering a start date, the launch date, due to the fact that we have been making sure we are financially viable to put on the event,” he said.