Female artistes sweep Best New Song Competitions

Aurella ‘Kahalia’ Beache and Cleo ‘Cleopatra’ Hendrickson showed female power and prowess on Saturday night and as a result walked away with the three crowns up for grabs at the launch of Vincy Mas 2016.

Kahalia, who was selected to take part in both the Carnival Development Corporation’s (CDC) Best New Song Ragga Soca and Best New Song Soca Competitions, {{more}}knocked out the male competitors to take both crowns, while Cleopatra also made light work of her male counterparts during the Best New Song Calypso Competition.

Kahalia, a veteran performer in the new song competitions, who has won the Calypso and Ragga Soca New Song crowns before, said on Saturday during a post-show interview that she was sick and not at 100 per cent during her performances.

“I was on stage running at about 60 per cent. I really wasn’t feeling well, but I am so happy that I put in enough effort to win and this is amazing,” Kahalia told SEARCHLIGHT, adding, “I’ve won Calypso and Ragga and never the Soca segment, so I am happy about the Soca segment”.

Her winning ragga soca song ‘Aye’ was written by Alex Barnwell and herself, while her soca song ‘Take over’ was written by her and recorded at Express Studio in Carriacou.

The announcement that Kahalia had beaten Kamara ‘Keido’ Foster with ‘Frass’ and Ozarie Matthews with ‘Bend Ova’ did not go down well with a section of the crowd and they openly booed the entertainer who had also won the Ragga Soca Competition last year with ‘Do Sumn.’

She said that she was not fazed by the crowd’s reaction.

“The audience will always have their favourite and they are not aware what the judges are looking for. It is a competition based on specific criteria, so whilst they may think their favourite won, they do not know the criteria,” stressed Beache.

She added, “….so, for example, there is a criteria for lyrics and one for melody, but for them (crowd), the song might have vibes or a topic that they like, but at the end of the day it is the criteria that the judges are looking at. The judges are not looking at what’s popular or who is in the crowd cheering”.

Beache said that crowd response only gives a small amount of points.

“The booing doesn’t really affect me, because I know what the judges are looking for and I felt that the songs I presented would have fulfilled most of the criteria they were looking for.”

She noted that while she should probably pay attention to the booing, “because it is how the fans feel”, she has to let that go, because at the end of the day, it is a contest and there are judges.

Beache also revealed that this year, it is not about competing, but about establishing herself.

“I didn’t really come here to compete. I just looked at it as an event that I was performing at…so, yeah, I am going to take part in the other events to validate and solidify myself,” said Beache.

The other winner on the night, Cleopatra, said that her song, ‘Love and Respect’ calls for better treatment of the elderly.

Cleopatra beat last year’s winner Kingsley ‘Hero’ Roberts, who did a song called ‘Fourth Test’ and Grantley ‘Ipa’ Constance who did ‘For Better or Worse’.

Performing for the third time in the CDC’s Best New Song Calypso Competition, Cleopatra, a member of the Upstage Xperience Calypso Tent, said that she “feels good” about winning. Her song was written by Eddie DuBerry, a US-based writer.

Said Cleopatra, “I just tried to send a message to the youths to have a little patience, have a little love and help them (elderly) in any way they can”.

The launch of Vincy Mas 2016, apart from having the New Song Competitions, saw presentations from the various Carnival Mas Bands, as well as a showcase from the J’Ouvert Fanatics. The Miss St Vincent and the Grenadines pageant contestants also made an appearance, when they were each sashed by their sponsors.

The event had performances from FLOW artistes like Delroy ‘Fireman’ Hooper, Rondy ‘Luta’ McIntosh and Shane ‘Hypa 4000’ Husbands. Other artistes who entertained included Chewalee Johnson with ‘Rumist’ and ‘Blama’ with ‘One Hit’. Young disc jockey Alexander Christopher ‘Lil Kris’ John won the FLOW DJ Competition during the event that attracted hundreds of persons.