11 Soca Monarch finalists named

ELEVEN finalists for The Monarch contest have been named and will be competing for $300,000 in cash and prizes on February 12.

The 11 rose to the top out of some 60 entrants in the renamed International Soca Monarch. The winner will not be recorded as one of the country's Soca Monarch winners but will have the perk of automatically qualifying for the 2022 Soca Monarch finals. Initially there were supposed to be ten finalists, but there was a tie and the organisers extended the number to include the additional winner. Newsday was not told who tied.

The competition will be broadcast on February 12 (Carnival Friday) on TV6 from 8 pm. It will be a two-hour show that will be a mixture of live and pre-recorded aspects.

The Monarch took a break from tradition in that last year’s winners for power and groovy soca did not automatically advance to the finals this year. Those winners, Iwer George and Jesse “College Boy Jesse” Stewart respectively, were supposed to have registered like all the others but opted out of the competition.

The finalists are:

Aaron Duncan

Dexter "Blaxx" Stewart

Darryl "Farmer Nappy" Henry

Olatunji "Ola" Yearwood

Melissa "Melly Rose" St Rose

Akeem "Preedy" Chance

Jerome "Rome" Precilla

Akel "Trinidad Ghost" Mc Lean

Kern "Trinidad Killa" Joseph

Trevon "Turner" Turner

Mical "Mical Teja" Williams

Andre "Viking Ding Dong" Houlder.