Fireman, Skinny Fabulous cause eruption in Victoria Park

The location of La Soufriere volcano changed temporarily over the carnival weekend, when performers Delroy ‘Fireman’ Hooper and Gamal ‘Skinny Fabulous’ Doyle caused a massive eruption in Victoria Park.

Defending monarch, Fireman ,made Soca Monarch history on July 5, 2025 when he and long-time rival, Skinny Fabulous took the win with their hit song ‘Erupt’.

Decades of experience between the two hit-makers resulted in yet another crown in the bag to add to the 13 Soca monarch wins for Fireman, and the five for Skinny Fabulous.

In an interview with SEARCHLIGHT, they credited mutual respect as a necessary component for building a solid performance on the night which featured a volcano, pyrotechnics and ‘ash’ raining down on patrons.

“Confidence is important, but more than confidence is preparation. I am a professional, Fire [man] is a professional. We have two professional teams, so it was just about executing,” Skinny Fabulous told SEARCHLIGHT.

“I know what Fireman’s strengths are; he knows what my strengths are. When I am working, he gives me my space; when he is working, I give him his space.”

Skinny described his return to the Soca monarch stage as “glorious” since announcing back in 2015 that he would be stepping away from the competition. He returned to competition in 2018 to take second place behind Fireman with ‘Soca Defenders’.

Both co-writers on the winning song, Skinny said after Fireman agreed to the collaboration, he readily accepted his invitation to compete in the finals “out of respect and love for country”.

“I called him first and said ‘Fire I want you on this song’. After we did the song, he said ‘I want you in the competition’. It was a fair trade off.”

Judges, no doubt, had a difficult time selecting a top five as all 14 entries brought out their A-game in the competition.

The Skinny and Fireman duo was awarded 396 points, while Bongo Prime came in at second place with 373 points for ‘Maddest Place on Earth’. Third place went to L-Plank with ‘Love Yuh Bad’ and there was a tie for fourth place with 347 points- Dymez and Da Pixel singing ‘Mas Forever/No Cap’ , and Fya Empress with ‘Need Acrobat’.