Fay-Ann Lyons booted: Simon Baptiste takes over International Soca Monarch
Soca
artiste Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez has been officially removed as both chairman and creative
director of Trinidad and Tobago’s International Soca Monarch. In a surprise
move on Monday, it was announced that Simon Baptiste will now serve as creative
director.
The Raze singer initially announced
last week that she was stepping down as chairman, indicating that she had not
been given the green light to move forward with any plans for the 2020
competition.
Monday’s announcement
While
she said she had plans in place since August of last year, she couldn’t make
any official moves since she didn’t own the franchise. And, with the
semi-finals mere weeks away, the former Road March champ said she had no real
time to prepare and properly organise logistics.
In a
lengthy Instagram post, she said: “This year I was not given a timely go-aheadto start, and as such my heart cannot be put into a rushed product. I believein giving the public a Soca Monarch they deserve and with limited time it becomesharder to accomplish. I don’t own the event, so I do wait on the say-so ofothers.”
Although
she stepped down as chairman, she thought she still retained the role as creative
director until Monday’s announcement of Baptiste’s appointment.
Going forward
When
she called the Geoffrey Wharton-Lake, co-owner of ISM, she said she was told
that the team offered Baptiste the position and decided to work with him going
forward. She was also told that she would be receiving official correspondence
confirming her termination.
Simon
Baptiste is the CEO and founder of Question Mark Entertainment and is well
known on Trinidad’s entertainment scene as manager of Kes The Band and Nadia
Batson. Question Mark also manages and host events including Kes The Band’s
annual carnival concert, Tuesday on the Rocks and Decibel Entertainment
Festival, a four-day event that exposes teens and young adults to career
opportunities in the creative arts and entertainment.
Lyons-Alvarez
assumed both roles for ISM in 2019, earning high praise for a well-executed
show that returned Power Soca to the forefront of the competition. From 2016 to
2018 the two sub-genres were merged into one category, resulting in one winner.
Lyons-Alvarez restored the two categories for the 2019 competition, advocating that
the two categories were distinct and needed their individual judging criteria.
Grenada’s Mr Killa won for Power Soca while Trinidad and Tobago’s Swappi
won the Groovy category.
The
ISM semi-finals are carded for February 2 while the finals will be held on
February 21.
