Fireman Hooper takes his 12th Soca Monarch crown

Delroy “Fireman” Hooper continues to rack up wins in the national Soca Monarch competition, having taken the top spot in the 2023 clash of the local power Soca practitioners.

The undisputed king of Power Soca in St Vincent and the Grenadines won his 12th power soca crown over the weekend with a song called “Madness”.

Fireman has also won the Ragga Soca and Road March competitions in the past.

The competition that began on Saturday night and ended in the wee hours of Sunday morning saw Kahm ‘Fligh’ Haynes take second place with “Farmer” and in third place Kemmy Christopher with “Spirit of Carnival”.

The competition also saw performances from Sun Divas, Keneil ‘Dose up’ Alexander, Omarion ‘Marlo Benn’ Benn, Shorn ‘Shorn Beats’ Nimblet, Kelvin ‘Double R’Wilson & Enriq Marshall, Keith Currency, Zimbory ‘Ghaza’ Joseph, Kertis Gully’ Marshall, Javid Jay-R’ Rouse, Esron ‘Esron’ Spielbery, Alpha ‘Stinger Nettle’ Allick, Ishatta ‘Shatta` Da Silva, and Kelvin ‘Killy’Wilson.

The soca monarch competition is usually the best patronized of the shows produced by the Carnival Development Corporation during Vincymas.

This year, the show was boycott by a handful of artistes due complaints about prize money and appearance fees.