Randy Glasgow Productions is known for events like Ladies Night Out and the Alternative International Comedy Festival, but come 2025 he wants to add a calypso competition for soca and chutney artistes to his events list.

The absence of the Soca Monarch for over two years took away a platform for many evolving artistes and some of them were frustrated, he said in a phone interview with Newsday.

On February 19, he discussed his plans for the competition.

Glasgow said, “We (Randy Glasgow Productions) are firmly of the opinion that a lot of talent lies within the soca fraternity and the young artistes.”

He said two years passed and no consideration was given to young soca artistes with reference to having a competition. The International Soca Monarch was last held in 2020 and its winners were Iwer George and Kes with Stage Gone Bad. The competition ran uninterrupted for 27 years and gave visibility to some of soca's most prominent figures today.

“It is important and I feel the vision is lost and there is no vision where that is concerned. Soca music is the engine of the Carnival.

“If you don’t have good soca music people will be walking the streets instead of jumping on the streets.”

[caption id="attachment_1066989" align="alignnone" width="943"] Randy Glasgow - AYANNA KINSALE[/caption]

A lot of effort and energy needed to be placed in developing soca music and encourage it, he added.

Different competitions helped to do this, Glasgow said.

“What we realise also to afford the soca artistes more opportunities we were thinking of a competition which would also help calypso. This was before Machel (Montano) came into the calypso,” Glasgow said.

Montano entered this year’s Calypso Monarch and won.

While Glasgow wants to provide a platform for young singers, he also wants to help develop the genre.

He said this type of competition would help calypso, as it should drive an influx of younger people to it and these younger people would bring their fan bases with them.

This was a win/win for the genre, he added.

Glasgow said he hopes corporate sponsors come on board and added that he has been in discussion with five of them thus far. He said things were “looking interesting” from these sponsors.

Initially, he had plans of hosting the event for Carnival 2024 but that did not materialise.

Glasgow said he had contacted National Carnival Commission (NCC) chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters who said it could not happen as the commission had no money.

“Things like that must not happen in the future and we are confident people will see the vision. Sponsors will see the vision.”

Hosting the competition was not only important for the genre’s evolution, he said, but to also help Trinidad and Tobago’s upcoming generations preserve the culture and fulfil their promise and dreams.

This is why he has called on every corporate citizen to get involved.

“You see what Machel did. Machel came across to the calypso; he brought his fans, he sounded good, the youths saw this is feasible...I don’t just have to r