Montano out Carnival 2024, focusing on MA in Carnival studies

KING of soca Machel Montano will not play an active role in Carnival 2024.

Montano, who has ten road march and seven Soca Monarch titles, called on his fans to honour and respect his decision because he is back in school.

As he received the keys to the City of San Fernando at Skinner Park on Sunday night from mayor Robert Parris, Montano told his audience he had made the announcement last year, “but I don’t think it registered.”

Montano, who said he is on the "brink of 50, " and has been singing for the past 42 years, is doing his master's degree in Carnival studies at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT).

“This is my second year, I am writing my thesis. This is my final year. The work is very heavy,” he said, pointing to intense studies in the history of calypso, steelband and mas, along with academic writing, history and social sciences.

“I am doing all of this because I want to set a foundation for the next level of Machel Montanos who are coming.

“If you don’t know where you are coming from, you can’t know where you are going. “

Quoting the African proverb about walking along if you want to go fast, but together if you want to go far, he appealed to his fans for their understanding.

“I hope you would be together with me in this decision. You would respect and honour and understand my absence.”

He philosophised that “to look forward to greater things to come, you have to yin and yang.

“You must sacrifice something for something else. You cannot reach to the horizon if you don’t step off the shore.”

Montano, who was accompanied by his wife Renee and mother Elizabeth “Lady” Montano, said he was deeply honoured to receive the keys to the city, which held a special place in his heart, as one of the places he lived and was schooled.

“I have been recently getting a lot of keys, and I have been wondering what is happening, but sometimes you realise when you do the right things, this will happen.

“I am honoured, as it is a call for me to be an example to other young people like me who chose the areas I have chosen to excel in life.

“Music is not seen as academia, but if you take it serious enough, as I have done, you can reach very far, and you would be able to stand on a stage just like me.”

Thanking Parris, Montano said he hoped the gesture would inspire others.

Describing Montano as a cultural ambassador for the promotion of calypso and soca on an international stage, which he has shared with the likes of Rihanna, Ariana Grande, Drake, Shaggy and others, Parris said he was most deserving.

Parris again put in a plug for Montano to consider San Fernando as the ideal location for the Machel Montano School for the Arts he proposes to build for young people to continue the art and traditions.

San Fernando West MP and Rural Development and Local Government Minister Faris Al-Rawi, Montano's friend and former schoolmate at Presentation College, San Fernando, endorsed the lobby for the school to be built in the city, which he said already boasts of the best school in the country, not only for its many scholarships but the character of individuals produced.