‘Rampage’ and ‘Link Up’ rule Junior Soca Monarch stage

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

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It was a “Ram­page” on stage as stu­dents and par­ents “Link Up” at the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, where Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, San Fer­nan­do’s Mar­cus Mc­Don­ald and St Pe­ter’s Pri­vate Pri­ma­ry School’s Ky­mani “Yung Ky­mani” Hec­tor-Kalloo cap­tured the 2026 Ju­nior So­ca ti­tles in a blaz­ing dis­play of youth­ful tal­ent.

The Sun­dar­lal “Popo” Ba­ho­ra Au­di­to­ri­um be­came a sea of ban­danas and bal­loons as stu­dents leapt from their seats, match­ing the en­er­gy of the fi­nal­ists dur­ing yes­ter­day’s com­pe­ti­tion. The con­test, which forms part of the na­tion­al ju­nior Car­ni­val cal­en­dar, fea­tured per­form­ers from pri­ma­ry and sec­ondary schools across Trinidad and To­ba­go, each judged on melody, lyrics, ren­di­tion, per­for­mance, and arrange­ment.

Mc­Don­ald emerged vic­to­ri­ous in the sec­ondary schools cat­e­go­ry with his pow­er so­ca en­try Ram­page, fin­ish­ing 21 points ahead of school­mate Zachary Ran­some. To­ba­go’s D’Ashe Saul of Bish­op’s High School placed third.

The Low­er Sixth Form stu­dent de­liv­ered ex­act­ly what he promised in his per­for­mance. He opened his ren­di­tion by stomp­ing on stage while singing a cap­pel­la, flanked by dancers and men­ac­ing go­ril­las in a chaot­ic but chore­o­graphed scene be­fore launch­ing in­to a fast-paced jump-and-wave rou­tine that mir­rored the in­ten­si­ty of In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch per­for­mances.

Af­ter­wards, Mc­Don­ald said the win was the re­sult of per­sis­tence af­ter two pre­vi­ous sec­ond-place fin­ish­es, in­clud­ing one be­hind his sis­ter.

“This vic­to­ry feels amaz­ing be­cause I worked to­wards it,” he said. “I did not give up, even when it was dis­ap­point­ing be­fore.”

Look­ing ahead, he said he was al­ready set­ting his sights on a big­ger stage.

“Over the next cou­ple of years, keep your eyes open and stay ready, be­cause Mar­cus Mc­Don­ald is com­ing.”

In 2023, Mc­Don­ald was de­clared the Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch win­ner but was lat­er dis­qual­i­fied from the com­pe­ti­tion, los­ing the ti­tle. But yes­ter­day, he had some words of ad­vice for com­peti­tors who fell short.

“Some­times one small thing could mash up a whole per­for­mance and make you feel like stop­ping,” he said. “But the per­son who keeps fight­ing is the one who will rise to the top.”

In the pri­ma­ry schools cat­e­go­ry, Hec­tor-Kalloo gave an an­i­mat­ed per­for­mance of Link Up, a song cel­e­brat­ing his love for so­ca and call­ing on the pub­lic to unite for Car­ni­val. His rou­tine in­clud­ed a live rhythm sec­tion and play­ful stage an­tics that had the au­di­ence singing and wav­ing along.

Judges award­ed him 15 points more than sec­ond-place fin­ish­er Amayah Wal­lace Aniebonam, with Xhaiden Dar­ius plac­ing third.

Though ad­mit­ted­ly ner­vous while watch­ing the oth­er com­peti­tors, Hec­tor-Kalloo said he be­lieved he could win and was proud of his achieve­ment.

“I’m hap­py I made my fam­i­ly, my school and my sup­port­ers proud,” he said.

Al­ready think­ing be­yond the com­pe­ti­tion, he said he hopes to trav­el and share his mu­sic in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.

“I want to tour the world and spread my mu­sic,” he said. “One day, I want to help peo­ple who are poor and al­so en­cour­age younger stu­dents by mak­ing mu­sic with them and do­ing shows with them.”

Ad­dress­ing the fi­nal­ists be­fore they per­formed, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Michael Dowlath said such com­pe­ti­tions helped to in­stil dis­ci­pline and lead­er­ship among stu­dents while en­cour­ag­ing ex­cel­lence in­side and out­side the class­room.

“The world can al­ways use more rhythm and cre­ativ­i­ty, so raise the vol­ume, raise the bar and let us make some noise,” Dowlath said.