Joshua Seemu­n­gal and

Jensen La Vende

Tonight’s Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nals bring an ex­cit­ing face-off be­tween youth and ex­pe­ri­ence.

Ris­ing star Yung Bred­da, 25, en­ters the com­pe­ti­tion as a crowd favourite af­ter top­ping the semi­fi­nals. He now goes up against reign­ing monarch Machel Mon­tano, a sea­soned per­former known for his dom­i­nance in the mu­sic in­dus­try.

Yung Bred­da, born Akhen­aton Lewis, is a crowd favourite who topped the semi­fi­nals at Skin­ner Park with 267 points. Close be­hind is an­oth­er first-timer to the Big Yard, An­tho­ny “Squeezy Rankin” La Fleur, who tied for sec­ond place with “The Ca­lyp­so Princess” Karene As­che.

This year’s Ca­lyp­so Monarch promis­es to be a close­ly fought and ex­cit­ing bat­tle.

Com­peti­tors will clash dur­ing the Di­manche Gras, the tra­di­tion­al Car­ni­val cur­tain rais­er at Car­ni­val City, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

Lewis hopes We Rise will se­cure his place in his­to­ry, just as La Fleur aims to do with his pow­er­ful so­cial com­men­tary piece, Jus­tice.

The de­fend­ing cham­pi­on aims to make his­to­ry in his Car­ni­val con­quest. A win tonight, com­bined with a pos­si­ble Chut­ney Monarch vic­to­ry from last night com­pe­ti­tion, could make him the most dec­o­rat­ed man in Car­ni­val his­to­ry.

Su­per Blue cur­rent­ly leads with 17 ma­jor ti­tles–ten road march­es and sev­en So­ca Mon­archs.

Mon­tano fol­lows close­ly be­hind with 16 ti­tles–one Ca­lyp­so Monarch, ten road march­es, and five So­ca Monarch crowns.

Once con­sid­ered ‘too young to so­ca,’ now mak­ing every­one “pardy”, Mon­tano now chal­lenges com­peti­tors with his song Bet Meh, set to be per­formed sev­enth in the line-up.

Con­fi­dent of mak­ing his­to­ry this week­end, Mon­tano is al­so seek­ing to be­come the first Ca­lyp­so Monarch to suc­cess­ful­ly de­fend his ti­tle since Rod­er­ick “Chucky” Gor­don in 2015.

In an in­ter­view with CNC3’s So­ca Hive pro­gramme last week, Mon­tano, when asked about his chances of de­fend­ing his ti­tles said, “I feel this is my ca­lyp­so year to be like the Black Stal­in—Tonight the Black Man Feel­ing to Par­ty or Burn Dem … I re­mem­ber watch­ing those per­for­mances, and it was so­ca songs mak­ing the Grand Stand and North Stand shake and dance but still say­ing some­thing.

“Bet Meh is say­ing, ‘You want to bet me I can do this?’ So, I am go­ing in there con­fi­dent­ly,” Mon­tano said, promis­ing that he would bring two more vers­es to his song.

Apart from Chut­ney and Ca­lyp­so Mon­archs, three steel­bands: BP Rene­gades, Her­itage Pe­tro­le­um Siparia Del­tones and Massy Trinidad All Stars are play­ing his ca­lyp­so con­tender.

“The ex­cit­ing part is tak­ing up the chal­lenge and do­ing what­ev­er it takes to show up. We are go­ing to make his­to­ry ei­ther way,” Mon­tano said.

For­mer mon­archs, As­che, Ter­ri Lyons, Gor­don, Du­ane Ta’zyah O’Con­nor, Helon Fran­cis and Kurt Allen are all hop­ing to re­claim the throne, while Ros­alyn Reid Haynes, Ann Marie Ko­jo, and Sam­raj “Rik­ki Jai” Jaimun­gal will all be seek­ing glo­ry as well. There are 12 con­tenders.

The con­tenders will not on­ly earn the crown and brag­ging rights but $750,000 and the keys to a KGM Tor­res, cour­tesy of Lifestyle Mo­tors. The sec­ond-place win­ner will walk away with $500,000, and $350,000 for the third-place win­ner.

Keen com­pe­ti­tion for King and Queen ti­tles

Tonight will al­so see keen com­pe­ti­tion for the King and Queen of Car­ni­val ti­tles.

The fight for cos­tume de­sign is al­so hot­ly con­test­ed with the won­drous de­signs of the 22 Kings and Queens promis­ing to wow the crowd. The King and Queen will re­ceive a brand new Suzu­ki Grand Vi­tara.

De­fend­ing King Joseph Lewis, who qual­i­fied in fourth po­si­tion, aims to out­per­form top semi­fi­nal­ists Cur­tis Eu­stace with Spir­it of ‘D’ Gas­pa­ree Cave, and Fareid Car­val­ho with Dralo­zo: A Be­ing From the Sun.

Lewis is look­ing for his fourth ti­tle, hav­ing won in 2019 and 2022 as well.

The oth­er com­pet­ing mas­quer­aders are Ted Eu­stace, Ray­mond Mark, Rus­sel Grant, Ravi Lakhan, Ke­ston Ben­thum, Er­ron Sookdeo, Franklin Jagdeo and Arif Gran­tum.

De­fend­ing Queen Rox­anne Oma­la, who fin­ished third in the semi­fi­nals, hopes that her cos­tume ‘Sire­na–Mis­tress of the Seas’ helps her win her third ti­tle.

Rana Kan­doo leads the fi­nal qual­i­fiers with 421 points for her cos­tume, Maiya–God­dess of Cre­ation.

She was fol­lowed by Cher­ry Ann Valere’s ‘So­lar­ia Fire­bird of Light and Life’.

The oth­er com­peti­tors are Sav­it­ri Ho­lassie, Nicole Her­cules, 2023 Queen Priya Na­gas­sar, Leisha McEach­nie, Shynel Brizan, Tur­ona Ramb­harose, Lau­ra Ram­per­sad, and Takeyah Fletch­er Mar­shall.

THE OR­DER FOR CA­LYP­SO MONARCH

1. Roslyn Reid Hayes – Sing It in Kaiso

2. An­tho­ny La Fleur (Squeezy Rankin) – Jus­tice

3. Ann Marie Parks Ko­jo (Twig­gy) – 65 and Still Rel­e­vant

4. Sam­raj Jaimun­gal (Rik­ki Jai) – Kaiso Chut­ney

5. Akhen­aton Lewis (Yung Bred­da) – We Rise

6. Ter­ri Lyons – Ask Yuh Man

7. Machel Mon­tano – Bet Meh

8. Karene As­che (The Ca­lyp­so Princess) – A Leader

9. Helon Fran­cis – To Whom It May Be

10. Du­ane Ta’zyah O’Con­nor – Kaiso to D World

11. Kurt Allen (The Last Bard­john of Ca­lyp­so) – Your Turn Now

12. Rod­er­ick Gor­don (Chuck Gor­don) – Look Tuh Press

Re­serve com­peti­tors in­clude Morel Pe­ters, King Lu­ta, and Stay­ing in Ca­lyp­so.