Boom Shakalaka: Fireman again

by Vanesta Murphy 13.JUL.07

Somebody say… Fire!!!! ‘The Unstoppable Hooper’ lived up to his self proclaimed title once again at the Victoria Park on July 6th as he Boom Shakalaked his way to victory in this year’s soca Monarch competition.{{more}}

The capacity crowd seemed to have been just waiting for him as they went wild, dancing on the barriers and singing back up while he was onstage. Delroy “Fireman” Hooper held the crowd from the moment his props (graves and crosses) were placed on stage until the very end when he performed a few magic tricks; indeed he cast a spell and had the crowd mesmerized.



This marks Fireman’s 3rd consecutive and sixth win of the soca monarch crown.

Some of the other contenders gave Hooper a run for his money. ‘Icon’, with his hit “Celebrate”, though he didn’t place in the top 4, whipped the crowd up and had everyone jumping. ‘Dani O’ was on first on stage with “Follow Me”, and gave a good performance with the aid of her backup dancers as they ‘worked the muscles’ of many an audience member.

The new drink for carnival has got to be “Strong Rum and Hairoun mix up with Sting”, because it helped Eddidson ‘Lively’ Boyde (above left) take the number 2 spot on the night.

The sky above the crowd was awash with colour as ‘Skinny Fabulous’ had everyone waving their bandanas.



Bomani and Skarpyan both had themes from other countries. Bomani’s “Freedom Cry” came from an African tribe while Skarpyan seemed to want to give the Orient a taste of Vincy Mas. Much to the disappointment of many a patron, favourite Zoelah ‘Zolah’ Boyde (right) didn’t fly away with a higher spot, only managing to grab 3rd position.

The 4th position went to Gregory ‘DJ 20’ Small (below left) with his song ‘Hand to mouth’. ‘Madroy’ was accompanied by a rat from someone’s cornfield.

Though the requisite scoring categories were read out at the beginning of the show, by the time the results were tallied it seemed that winning was more based more on crowd reaction than anything else. Fireman definitely had the crowd while some of the other contenders failed to make a flutter in the harsh crowd that night.



Homage was paid to some of this country’s Soca music greats and pioneer record store owner and producer Granville Straker. Straker, who was presented with a plaque by Minister of Culture Rene Baptiste, appeared visibly shaken by the unsavoury comments made by some members of the crowd who were seemingly impatient for the show to begin.

No need for ‘Rus T’ to tell us that the crowd was definitely getting on nasty. Other contenders vying for the crown on the night were, Busta Ski, Johnny Rebel, Alla G, Shaunelle, KGB, Dennis Bowman, Lan Lord and Squitty.