Chutney Soca Monarch final moving to SAPA

The Chutney Soca Monarch CSM) grand final is in the process of moving to the Southern Academy for the Performing Arts (SAPA), Todd Street, San Fernando. This was revealed by the competition’s founder George Singh on Thursday.

The latest development comes after promoter Randy Glasgow called on CSM organisers to remove an advertisement about its grand final being held on the same day as Glasgow’s Chutneyland at the same venue – Naparima Bowl.

Singh said, “I am in the process of confirming SAPA as the venue for Chutney Soca Monarch and we are going on the same night, Carnival Saturday (February 26) at the same time 8 pm.”

Chutneyland starts at 6 pm.

Singh said if CSM clashes with Glasgow’s event, that is fine and the CSM organisers did not have an issue with that as “he is in Naparima Bowl and we are in south NAPA, so it is not a problem.”

The CSM semi-final was streamed online on Wednesday.

Singh said it went well and there were 32 participants.

“The area that we used was only judges and the technical crew. We checked everybody that was coming in. Everybody was vaccinated. We did temperature checks, artistes sat down in their cars until they were ready to perform, and they performed and then they left.”

Singh described the virtual event as being a “smooth- running operation.”

Videos were created from the semis and released on social media platforms: YouTube, Facebook and Tik Tok.

For those making it to the final, their points will be determined by 60 per cent judges, 30 per cent text voting, and ten per cent by number of views of the videos.

The judging will be done over a week and will end next Tuesday. Finalists will be announced on Wednesday.