Having the confidence that you can win a competition is one thing but actually winning is another.

“It is one of the biggest moments of my life. I feel real proud. I had a lot of people who looked up to me and believed in me doing it and I am glad I did not really disappoint anybody,” Antonio ‘Small Circle’ Edwards told SEARCHLIGHT yesterday, two days after a crowd at Victoria Park crowned him the ‘Shell Down Boss’.

The ‘Shell Down Boss’ competition is an initiative of Gamal ‘Skinny Fabulous’ Doyle in which he invited local artistes to perform at his Black Rave event where the one who moved the crowd the best was rewarded with EC$12,000.

Small Circle, with his 2018 power Soca hit ‘Eggplant’, done on the ‘Emoji’ riddim, gave a high energy performance that saw him pushing aside other artistes like Keith ‘Grabba Finesse’ Charles with his hit ‘Peaches Mother’, Fimber Jardine with ‘Funky Business’ and Recardo ‘Recka’ Wilson, with ‘Sheller Posse’.

At the end of the show, when Doyle asked the gathering who had won, there was a tie between Grabba Finesse and Small Circle and both artistes were invited back on stage for a tie breaker round which was eventually won by Small Circle.

“When Skinny asked the crowd if Grabba won and I heard the crowd respond, I was like ‘Yeah be beat me’ but then he ask them if I win and I was wondering if more people come in the Park…it was like wow,” recalled the 24-year-old whose repertoire of songs includes ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’, ‘Anywhere’, ‘Miserable’ and ‘Lock the City’.

“I had full confidence I would win, but it had other artistes that ‘buss’ big and I wasn’t underestimating them. I said I would do my best and I did,” he added.

When asked where the idea for “Eggplant” came from, Small Circle replied while laughing, “I can’t answer that, that’s off the record.”

He said that the Emoji Riddim was done by him and Vinton ‘Hunter Flow’ Ollivierre, while Raeon ‘Madzart’ Primus is his mentor and someone he likes to call his ‘Music Daddy’.

He plans to release one more song this year, ‘Because We Are Young’ on the Stationary riddim and persons interested in seeing other live performances from him may do so at the ‘H2O’, ‘Pumpin’, ‘Dirty Sexy Soca’, ‘Fete Land’ and Soca monarch events.

The Overland resident who has been singing professionally since 2016 now has his sights set on the National Soca Monarch competition and crown. He however acknowledges that winning in that arena is a huge task.

“Everyone stands a chance [of winning], it is possible [I can win]. Most definitely I will be in the Soca Monarch finals,” boasted Small Circle who will be taking part in the Soca Monarch semi-finals this Saturday.

Among those performing last Saturday were Jamarie “L-Pank” Stapleton, Bradley “Party Dawg” Huggins, Kester “Flanka” Chapman, Ryan “Royall” Abraham and Joel “Tha Fugitive” Bibby.

Headliners included Skinny Fabulous, Delroy “Fireman” Hooper, Destra Garcia and Dexter “Blaxx” Stewart.