By DARCEL CHOY Sunday, February 10 2013

“This one going to fog up the place”. True to his word, Machel Montano did indeed bring “Fog” to the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain on Friday night winning him the Digicel International Groovy Soca Monarch title for the second time in a row.

Powder filled the air in both the general and VIP sections throughout Montano’s performance.

Before he came on stage, fancy sailors with masks danced to the music played by men beating African drums. Montano was then revealed as one of the sailors as his mask was removed. He then began singing ‘you can’t play mas if you ‘fraid powder’ and the scent of powder filled the air and a fog settled over the crowd.

The crowd loved every minute of Montano’s usual energetic performance as they sang along with him. The popular “Powder Posse” then emerged in the VIP section waving their huge flag and throwing more powder into the air. Before his performance was over, Montano brought out several tall Carnival characters reminiscent of masman Peter Minshall’s “Tan Tan” and “Saga Boy” who danced on stage as he encouraged the crowd to jump and wave before ending his song.

After, many people in the crowd said that was the “best presentation” they had seen in the Groovy category.

Placing second in this segment of the Soca Monarch competition was Iwer George with his performance of “Bubble”. For his presentation, George brought out a boat on stage named after his boat Coral Vision. Dressed in a sailor outfit, the veteran entertainer had Dame Lorraines and Moko Jumbies on stage as he sang. He also surprised the audience when he called out on stage Prophet Benjamin (Devon Samuel) who took George’s sailor hat, placed it on top of his head wrap and sang his own verse to George’s song which the crowd thoroughly enjoyed.

In third position was Blaxx (Dexter Stewart) who performed “Leh Go” in the eleventh position, closing off the category.

Blaxx appeared on stage wearing a shirt covered in lights with moko jumbies dancing in the background. When he sang, “spread your hands and leh go” all that could be seen were hands as the crowd obeyed Blaxx’s instructions. He even had his daughter on stage with him playing his song on the pan which she did really well.

Ravi Bissambhar (Ravi B) placed fourth in this year’s competition with his hit song “Prescription”. Before he began his performance, Ravi B was wheeled on to the stage on a stretcher and his sister and bandmate Nisha Bissambhar (Nisha B) dressed as a nurse was seen giving him a bottle of rum in an effort to revive him. He then jumped off the stretcher and began singing his song. The crowd thoroughly enjoyed his performance as they sang every word. He later advised them to drink responsibly.

The show moved smoothly until right before Patrice Robert’s performance, the pyrotechnics used in many of the artiste’s presentation caused a small fire on the roof of the stage. The fire officers quickly climbed the scaffolding and extinguished the flames.

The emcees asked that the crowd remain calm as the fire officers did their job. The delay lasted approximately 15 mins and the competition was allowed to continue.