Fay-Ann triumphs at Soca MonarchBy Darcel Choy and Joan Rampersad Sunday, February 22 2009
Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez made history on Friday night at the National Stadium as she became the first woman to win the Soca Monarch, Groovy Soca Monarch and the bmobile People’s Choice.
Singing in position No 7 in the Groovy Soca Monarch competition, Lyons-Alvarez danced onto the stage dressed as a Dame Lorraine to render her popular “Heavy T Bumper” and just worked the song.
During the performance she brought on contestants from the Miss Big and Beautiful Competition as well as the renowned Calypso Rose.
The crowd was moved. She paid special respect to the queen of calypso by inviting the entire crowd at the Hasely Crawford Stadium to sing to Rose before commanding them to wine their bumpers. Rose took full advantage of that and sent the crowd wild. It was an impregnable performance.
In the Power Soca Monarch Lyons-Alvarez, dressed in black and blue, belted out her song “Meet Superblue” as she again paid tribute, this time to her father, Austin “Superblue” Lyons who danced around on the stage next to his daughter, hugging and kissing her as she performed.
She then sent the crowd in a frenzy when she introduced them to her baby by putting the microphone to her belly and a child-like voice singing a verse to her song was heard.
After that, it was quite clear that she had the support of everyone in the venue as they chanted “Fay-Ann, Fay-Ann” in unison for over five minutes, demanding an encore.
Defending champion Bunji Garlin, who placed second, showed support for his wife when he told the audience during his performance he was only there to have fun and to ensure that Iwer George placed third as his wife was already the winner of the night.
Iwer George who came out in a red suit finished off with a red bow tie, performed his song “Ready” with a stunning stage presentation complete with dancers and large costumes, earning him third place in the competition. Rain threatened to interrupt the show during the Power Soca Monarch segment of the competition but it did not stop Blaxx from giving his all as he performed “Tusty” and captured fourth place.
Last year’s Groovy Soca Monarch winner, Shurwayne Winchester placed second in that category with his powerful performance of his song “Make it Yours” with the help of international reggae artiste Maxi Priest.
Also impressing the large crowd and the judges was Benjai, who sang “Drunk Again” without any large stage presentation.
He came in third in the Groovy Soca Monarch followed by fourth placed Zoelah from St Vincent who sang “Wine Up on Me” with the help of sexy male dancers, much to the delight of the female audience.
Hunter, who performed his big hit “Jep Sting” sent the crowd wild when he introduced his fellow artistes, Anil Bheem, Drupatee and Ravi B to sing with him.
Earlier, the show once again started an hour late despite the assurances that things would be different this year. The promised 1 am finish time never came true as the show continued until after 3 am in the morning.
