Sweet Soca Semi-Finalists Announced

Sixteen calypsonians will battle in the semi-final round of the Sweet Soca competition on Friday, July 5 at the Party Stand at 10:00 p.m. for a chance to perform on the coveted Soca Royale stage.  They are:

The judging panel for the Sweet Soca preliminary round included Andre Hinkson, Michael Welch, Anderson Bolden, Brian Cole and was led by Chief Judge, Jude Eastmond. The entire process was monitored by auditors Price Waterhouse Coopers SRL and arbiter Jessica Ashby.
All calypsonians making it to the semi-final round of the Sweet Soca competition must be at the National Cultural Foundation’s (NCF’s) Headquarters, West Terrace, St. James, on Monday, June 24 at 5:00 p.m. to sign their contracts. They must submit 3 copies of the lyrics along with their music scores – 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 1 bass guitar, 2 chord charts and a drum chart or trumpet chart on that day.
This is the second year that the NCF has teamed up with a private promoter to host the Sweet Soca Semi-Finals, last year the Sweet Soca hopefuls performed at the Pork Lime.

Chetwin Stewart of Power x 4 says that the Sweet Soca Semis will form part of their Sweet Friday events which launched yesterday at the Party Stand and will run every Friday from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. throughout the festival season. The Sweet Soca competition will start at 10:00 p.m. followed by an after-party in the venue until 4:00 a.m. Early bird tickets are $20 and patrons will pay $30 at the door.

The NCF say’s that it has upped the game in this year’s semi-final round by including performances to a live backing band at this level of the competition in the same after-work-lime atmosphere.