It was a blessing for Blaka Dan as he won the first Ultimate Soca Champion competition, with a total score of 387 points and earning the grand prize of $1 million.
The second-place winner was Yung Bredda, with $300,000, who also won the Bmobile People’s Champion Winner, and third place went to Preddy, who walked away with $150,000.
The event took place on February 20 at the Queen’s Park Savannah, and the recorded finale was broadcast last Friday night. All the 11 performers received $50,000 upfront for their performance.
Grenadian soca artiste Wrenroy Ogiste (Blaka Dan), who sang Blessing, told Guardian Media that it is a great feeling knowing the amount of work that went into the production.
“I was not expecting it to be of this magnitude, but with the help of my production manager Cureleen Stewart, Co Masterminds, it was expected that when we saw the kind of work that went into making the performance great, we felt it was winning.”
Asked if the current format of the competition has staying power, Ogiste said the format was new and would take getting accustomed to, with regards to the waiting process of the results.
“All other aspects have a refreshing vibe. The only thing I would say is the excitement, with regards to winning, as it is not being announced on the said night like the soca competition in the past. I wonder if it kind of kills the excitement a bit and this is me advocating for the organisers. I am wondering if they are losing money not streaming this live on the said day because Soca Monarch was a worldwide event, which was streamed. So I do not know if the revenue is not the organiser’s main focus,” the soca artiste said.
Questioned on Yung Bredda being the favourite during the competition, and how he felt being able to rise to the top with several points over him, Blaka Dan said Yung Bredda was a very talented individual. He said their stories were similar: ghetto youths having a difficult time.
On whether the song Blessing had anything to do with a break-up he experienced, Blaka Dan said, “It was based on true stories and not necessarily a relationship, with regards to how people relate to the song. I attacked it from a relationship standpoint as it would be more enjoyable. It is a song that you may have deemed a tragedy in your life and came out to be a positive.”
Responding to Guardian Media, Yung Bredda (Akhenaton Lewis) said, “Placing in the top three for my first competition is a win by itself! I am not a fan of competitions because it brings enemies, but it was an awesome experience. Who knows what next year will bring? I move on a vibe, and if it leads me that way, well so be it.”
Producer of the Ultimate Soca Champion Jerome “Rome” Precilla describes the $8 million competition as a success, given the time frame that was given to put the production together.
“We were happy with the response of the 4,000 crowd-goers and the numbers that came out on a Thursday night. Because we had remembered that the show was live on a Thursday night. So we were happy that people came out and they supported their favourite artistes.”
In terms of challenges, he said reinstating the faith in the artiste would be a fair competition and that the judging criteria would not be based on the popularity of the song.
“We had to reinstate that into the artiste because a lot were sceptical in competitions like these. A lot of them felt like they were going to the past. A big part of it was showing people that, listen, this is a competition of integrity, of transparency, and that they could be judged fairly and that the results would be fair,” Precilla explained.
He noted that some were disappointed with the results.
“We had a lot of people disappointed with the results and what we learned is that no matter the results, you’re going to get that. But we, as an organisation, can’t do anything about that. What we can make sure of is that the competition has integrity and proper judging criteria, which were all tagged and reviewed by a reputable accounting firm, Ernst & Young,” he stated.
Precilla added that the competition would be back next year once it has support from the Government and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts, along with private partnerships.