Machel Mon­tano has en­tered the Chut­ney So­ca Monarch (CSM) com­pe­ti­tion and qual­i­fied for the semi­fi­nals of the event, Southex an­nounced yes­ter­day af­ter­noon.

The semi­fi­nals will take place on Feb­ru­ary 8 at La Trop­i­cal, Rig Com­pound, La Ro­main.

Re­turn­ing to the com­pe­ti­tion this year are past cham­pi­ons, nine-time win­ner Rik­ki Jai and Neval Chate­lal.

Oth­er no­table re­turns to the CSM stage are Chris Gar­cia, Veekash Sa­hadeo and Hem­latha ‘Hur­ri­cane’ Din­di­al, while some new artistes will al­so be vy­ing for the ti­tle.

The semi­fi­nal round will fea­ture 34 artistes com­pet­ing for the nine places at the grand fi­nale.

Rick Ra­moutar will be de­fend­ing his crown.

The top-placed fe­male artiste at the grand fi­nal will be crowned the Queen of Chut­ney So­ca.

Last year’s win­ner, Rawytee Ram­roop, will be de­fend­ing her crown, but is re­quired to qual­i­fy through the semi­fi­nal round.

Af­ter the screen­ing of songs sub­mit­ted, the 34 artistes se­lect­ed for the CSM’s 30th an­niver­sary semi­fi­nal in­clude Rawytee Ram­roop, Reehan­na Gopaul, Vanes­sa Ra­moutar, Kavi­ta Ramkissoon, Ro­hanie ‘Nel’ Ram­dass, Resh­ma Ram­lal, Sari­ka Sul­tan, Hem­latha Din­di­al.

Among the males are De­o­dath Bir­bal (USA), Nigel Gob­in, Col­in Jack­man (USA), Kendel Jag­ger­nauth Shi­va M & Jadel, Ed­ward Ram­dass, Amit Sagram, Suresh Maraj, Wack­er­man, Amit Baksh – Mit­tyranks, Mas­ter Saleem, Nari Raghu­bir, Ra­jdeo ‘Ra­jah’ Ram­per­sad, Davin­dra Ram­dath, Robin J Suresh, Ram­po Ram­per­sad, Devin­dra Gat­too, Chris Gar­cia, Oneil Bha­j­man Avinash Sookraj & Sunil Ram­sun­dar, Adesh Sama­roo, Ri­car­do Melville - Dad­dy Chi­nee, Veekash Sa­hadeo, Neval Chate­lal, Rik­ki Jai, and Machel Mon­tano.