Saturday, November 3 2007

MACHEL MONTANO walked away with three major awards from the 2007 Copyright Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) Music Awards on Thursday night.

The soca superstar’s biggest prize was the Songwriter of the Year title in which he beat back fellow artistes’ Kernel Roberts and Shurwayne Winchester to grab that coveted award.

Montano also shared the Song of the Year and Soca of the Year awards with Kernel Roberts and St Lucian songwriter Courtney Louis for this collaboration on the soca hit ‘Jumbie.’

The awards show “Ignite The Music” was a gold carpet affair with celebrities arriving at Queen’s Hall in limousines to attend a VIP cocktail reception which preceded the main event.

The awards, based on royalty distribution, were given out in several categories representing the various musical genres popular in Trinidad and Tobago.

Highlights of the evening included a high energy performance by calypso veteran Lord Nelson (Robert Nelson) who received the Pioneer of the Year Award and a surprise performance by Grammy Award-winning singer Billy Ocean, who appeared on stage for the grand finale.

Ocean was given a standing ovation as he joined Destra, Nadia Batson and Sanell Dempster in a performance of his hit, “Caribbean Queen.”

The big winners on the night were:

Pan Song of the Year

The Original De Fosto Himself (Winston Scarborough)

“Pan Lamentation”



Parang Soca of the Year

Richard Ahong/Jason Seecharan

“Christmas With You”



Calypso of the Year

Skatie (Carlos James)/Steve Rabathaly

“Eat We Cake and Still Have It”



Groovy Soca of the Year

Christopher Morris

“Cold Sweat”



Rapso of the Year

Wendell Manwarren/Stanton Kewley/Roger Roberts/ Sheldon “Shel Shock” Benjamin

“Good Morning”



Chutney Soca of the Year

Kenneth Supersad

“Chunkoi”



Rock/Pop Song of the Year

Riad Boochoon/Kees Dieffenthaller/Hans Dieffenthaller/Jon Dieffenthaller

“Lion”



Gospel of the Year

Isaac Blackman

“To The Ceiling”



Reggae/Dancehall of the Year

Marlon Asher (Marlon Sobers)/Carl “Beaver” Henderson

“Love of Jah”



New Female Songwriter of the Year

Lady Gypsy (Lynette Steele-Aberdeen)



New Male Songwriter of the Year

Courtney Louis



Soca of the Year

Machel Montano/Kernel Roberts/Courtney Louis

“Jumbie”



Female Songwriter of the Year

Destra Garcia



Publisher of the Year

Jabberwocky Publishing



Song of the Year

Machel Montano/Kernel Roberts/Courtney Louis

“Jumbie”



Songwriter of the Year

Machel Montano



Pioneer of the Year

Lord Nelson (Robert Nelson)