Several soca artistes have announced that they will not be participating in Carnival Development Corporation (CDC)’s Soca Monarch competition.
The first artiste to announce his absence from the competition was Charlie ‘Chewalee’ Johnson, in a post to social media, his post was then followed by Derron ‘Magikal’ Rouse’s post that he too will be backing out of this year’s competition, with Dymez and DaPixel, Grabba Finesse and more announcing the same.
Earlier this year a list of demands were collectively sent to the CDC, among those list of demands was an increase in the prize money for the Soca Monarch competition.
Chewalee while appearing on WE FM’s Activated Mornings program broke down the financial cost of participating on the Soca Monarch competition.
Johnson noted that the first upfront cost of participation in the Soca Monarch competition is the recording and production of his song, which can cost anywhere from $1500 to $2000.
He then goes on to speak about cost of the performance cost incurred.
“I have spent—consistently, I have spent over $6000 and that is me not being able to spend anymore because it isn’t there, you understand me? But, if it was available other things could have happened, and that is also with me some “freebies” as people say. You know a man would have done something for you and it really cost $500 but he says “boy Chewalee, I already see how things are, just give me a ticket,” he said.
That was Charlie ‘Chewalee’ Johnson speaking on WE FM’s Activated Mornings Program.
The full list of demands put forward by the artistes are:
•An increase in prize money for the Ragga Soca and Soca Monarch competitions (1st place EC$40,000; 2nd place EC$25,000; 3rd place EC$15,000).
• An increase in appearance fee to EC$5000.
• Payment of prize money to be made no later than five days after the competition.
•Each performer to be granted a copy of their score sheet upon request.
•Each performer to be allowed to display the brand of any business that has sponsored their performance.
•A percentage of revenue from pay-per-view should be given to artistes.
•A percentage of revenue from the use of all artistes’ image and likeness across all media platforms should be given to the artistes.
