Ultimate Soca Champion is new government-backed soca competition

THE Ultimate Soca Champion was unveiled as the name of the government-led new soca competition.

This was shared on January 8 at the launch of the reality-TV series, Carnival Catwalk at the Lord Kitchener Auditorium, National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), Frederick Street, Port of Spain.

Star Global Productions (SGP), a joint venture between The Lollabee Group, Jerome "Rome" Precilla, Adrian Chandler and others were chosen as the competition's organisers after a Request for Proposals (RFP) invitation was issued.

In a phone interview on January 9, Rome said more will be revealed at an upcoming conference next week. This conference will give details of date, time, preliminaries and more.

Rome said part of the competition will involve video submissions.

"All of the artistes who are rehearsing this week and performing this weekend are advised to capture footage of their performances or rehearsing the song," he said.

He said the competition will be heavily TV-oriented like Carnival Catwalk.

Carnival Catwalk is a reality-TV fashion competition which combines Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival with cutting-edge fashion design. It premiered on January 9 on local, regional, and international cable and broadcast networks. It is being produced by Precilla's Itz Rome Entertainment, Rodney Seemungal of SGP Studios and Gian Franco of Pavilion Entertainment, with support from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.

Ten designers from around the world are competing for a $100,000 cash prize, an opportunity to showcase at Milan Fashion Week, and a scholarship to the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s design school.

Competitors face a top-notch judging panel that includes head judge Wendy Fitzwilliams, Anya Ayoung Chee, Andrew Ramroop and Destra Garcia, among others.

Rome said that there was international interest in the soca competition content.

"It is the same team that would have done Carnival Catwalk, it is the same team doing Soca Champions.

"We are making sure that it is going to be streamed internationally. Throughout the region we have relationships with media organisations like TV J in Jamaica, CBC in Barbados , a TV station in St Kitts and with Flow as well.

"The entire Caribbean will be broadcasting it and it will be streamed as well."

Last April, Tourism, Culture and the Arts Minister Randall Mitchell invited parties to partner with the government for a new soca competition after the International Soca Monarch competition had not been held for years.

In July, it invited expressions of interest (EOI). That closed on August 23 and the ministry received eight submissions.

The RFP was issued on October 29 and closed on November 19.

It received three submissions and Star Global Productions Ltd was chosen.