While Rome burns

THERE was a certain fire to the warning to competitors given by Jerome “Rome” Precilla on February 13 during the draw for places at the finals of the new Ultimate Soca Champion competition.

Mr Precilla fretted about performers who had withdrawn from the event after qualifying to compete.

Dominican singer Trilla G, Trinidad Killa and Neil “Iwer” George dropped out of the semi-final round. Only Trinidad Killa offered a reason for his departure when he couldn’t perform virtually.

Mr George’s departure cleared the way for Trilla-G, listed as a reserve, to re-enter the competition.

Despite official pleasantries on the departure of Mr George, Mr Precilla noted with apparent annoyance that “some people are withdrawing from the competition two days before.” Mr George left the semi-finals of the competition on 48 hours notice.

“You were all given the opportunity to represent your craft and your music at the final stages,” Mr Precilla warned. “Any one of you who wants to withdraw from the competition without a reasonable explanation will not be allowed to re-enter this competition next year.”

Clearly concerned that competitors were taking the Ultimate Soca Champion competition too lightly, he urged competitors to take the opportunity seriously.

“This is not a feeling, this is people’s careers we are dealing with.” The Ultimate Soca Champion event also will be challenged to return an international soca competition to pride of place on the national Carnival calendar.

It’s predecessor, the International Soca Monarch (ISM), rested on its laurels until it became uninteresting pressed flowers, the competition dwindling into irrelevance as its biggest draws went on to successful careers and their own branded events.

It’s arguable that the death of ISM was its reliance on the big names it cultivated at the height of its popularity and the dearth of successor artistes capable of sustaining the event after they left.

The Ultimate Soca Champion emerged out of a call from the National Carnival Commission in a bid to keep a soca competition on the calendar.

It must carve out its own space in a Carnival landscape that has been changed by post-covid expectations, the dominance of YouTube-fuelled creators and unsentimental local audiences.

To do that, Mr Precilla has promised a world-class competition and backstory contextualisation of participants and process for a professionally edited, post-event broadcast.

If he and his team are able to pull this particular rabbit out of the Carnival hat, he would have pushed against the festival’s tendency to stage a successful experience that’s rarely been captured and packaged in a form that’s palatable to audiences unfamiliar with TT’s stamina for the “pardy.”

Supporting that effort is a cast of names so new that Nailah Blackman seems a veteran among them.

Mr Precilla’s show is an appropriately bold move, and its success will also be soca’s success. That’s worth a minor show of temper before the finals on February 20. When in Rome…