Machel Montano has successfully defended his Road March title, placing first and second in the annual Carnival competition. Montano, who also won the Power Soca Monarch on Friday, placed first with his song Like a Boss, which played 390 times at judging points across the country and second with his power soca song Erupt, which played 37 times. Groovy Soca Monarch Olatunji Yearwood placed third as his song Ola was played 22 times.
In a release, the Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organisation (Tuco) said Montano’s win, though by a large margin, was surpassed by the song Palance in 2010 by J.W and Blaze and Fantastic Friday by Super Blue in 2013. Montano has won the competition seven times. The record for most Road March wins belongs to deceased calypsonian Lord Kitchener, who won the competition 10 times. Montano ranks fourth in terms of number of wins.
Montano told CNC3 he was happy to secure another win, noting it was not the first time more than one of his songs had finished in the top three. He said Like Ah Boss was actually made for the 2014 Groovy Monarch title but they decided to hold it back because they felt Happiest Man Alive would bring it and it didn’t.
“…So we always like to keep a bullet in the chamber just in case yuh know, because we really want to succeed, not on a competition level but we want to even compete with ourselves and make sure that we could do the best thing for the country to smile, to make everybody smile and share that happy moment…”.