Like Carnival Monday and Tuesday, and National Panorama finals, the International Soca Monarch (ISM) show is not produced for television.
This was the view of Nigel Campbell, an experienced music writer and critic, who was responding to a wave of criticism on social media after Sunday night’s show at the Queen’s Park Savannah, in Port-of-Spain.
Campbell, who tuned in to watch the Soca Monarch semi-finals, agreed with some of the views of people in the country who were firing out scathing critiques of the eight-and-a-half hour long show.
“Everybody was complaining about it being a long show. Soca Monarch is not a great television show. Panorama, Carnival and Soca Monarch are not produced for television. From the lack of rehearsals, to where the camera operators should be, this show was not produced for TV,” Campbell said.
Campbell lamented that while there were a number of people who were able to perform on stage, many of the contestants in the semis had little to no experience performing in a concert.
“A concert is different from a fete. Some of these artists did not know how to perform on a stage, hold a mic and move around. They may have experience in fetes, but a fete is not a concert. Feting with the Saints is not the same as Soca Monarch, but many performers do not know the difference,” he said.
Campbell also stated that people in Trinidad have grown accustomed to a certain standard of television production, and the viewing audience would not tolerate substandard television production.
Soca Monarch, which had 70 performers on Sunday, received harsh comments from people on social media.
Prestige Foundation chairman Peter Scoon said in spite of the 70 performers, the show was very tight and moved smoothly. The event began at 4 pm and ended around 2 am yesterday.
Defending the decision to have 70 people in the semi-finals, Scoon said he wanted to give the artists who don’t get much air-time on radio an opportunity to become known.
“The problem we have is that we are trying to do two things—produce a good show and develop the industry by giving young people exposure. A lot of the artists who performed last night usually get no radio exposure. If we let only experienced soca performers in Soca Monarch, then we won’t have a future of soca,” he said.