Celebrate chutney in Carnival

Recognising chutney's role in Carnival on Friday night, George Singh successfully staged the 2023 Chutney Soca Monarch competition at Skinner Park in San Fernando.

Daddy Chinee (Ricardo Melville) took the crown, with nine-year-old Katelin Sultan winning as queen, the youngest competitor in the competition's history.

In challenging the market appeal of Machel Montano's 40 concert, Singh banked on his diligent and consistent marketing of the event.

As with most major cultural events presented during the season, the Southex CEO is supported by state funding, but confidently moved forward with his show, despite hiccups in cash disbursements from the Government, because he also won the support of corporate sponsors, a difficulty for many events this season.

Mr Singh even refused to accept the limitations of covid19, staging hugely popular virtual editions in 2021 and 2022.

None of that would be possible if the event hadn't been carefully shaped and curated over the nearly three decades it has been staged to become recognised as the definitive barometer of the chutney soca produced each season.

Chutney soca's mainstream popularity can be traced back to Sundar Popo's hit Nana and Nani in the 1970s, but the name was used widely after the release of Drupatee Ramgoonai's 1987 album Chatnee Soca. After that, the music began a rapid evolution. Rikki Jai's Sumintra was another monster hit in the genre, paving the ground for other exponents to command the national ear, including Ramrajie Prabhoo, Heeralal Rampartap, Sonny Mann and Rooplal Girdharie. A snippet of Vedesh Sookoo's 2009 song Meat is for Man has provided the music bed for thousands of Tik Tok clips.

Machel Montano's collaboration with Ramgoonai, Real Unity, was not only popular, it offered the inspiration for the cultural underpinning of his first film as a leading man, Bazodee.

Despite the pervasive presence of chutney soca in the festival, it is often regarded as a curiosity or an afterthought, despite breakout hits by popular artistes like Rikki Jai, KI Persad and the Bissambhars, Ravi and Nisha.

The chutney soca stage has proven far more welcoming and inclusive to cross-cultural engagements, welcoming Marcia Miranda, Brother Marvin and Tony Ricardo among others in its competition framework.

The gaffe by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts in its well-intentioned effort to note the passing of radio host and singer Anil Bheem was an eloquent example of the disconnect between official recognition and an actual understanding of indigenous culture of Indo-Trinidadian origin.

A ministry of culture that doesn't recognise the difference between a Hindu prayer and a chutney soca hit is not demonstrating the equanimity expected of a country that champions an equal space for every creed and race. Such embarrassments should act as a prompt for a more balanced appreciation of the contribution of Indo-Trinidadian talent and encourage more meaningful efforts to create a cultural space for their creations.