NEW YORK, N.Y. – Winner of Trinidad’s International Soca Monarch and Groovy Soca Monarch titles, Shurwayne Winchester, is set to rock Manhattan on Friday, August 18, with a performance at Club Eugene, 27 West 24th between 5th and 6th Avenue.
Winchester will perform at Caribbean Fever Fridays, the first upscale after-work party for Caribbean professionals, which has been held at Eugene for the past six weeks by the Upscale Crowd Entertainment.
The weekly party has been attracting crowds of upwards of 400 people each week, and it is anticipated that Winchester ‘s high-voltage performance will draw a crowd of over 600.
Winchester is the first among his peers to have succeeded in winning the International Soca Monarch and the Groovy Soca Monarch titles in the same year (2006). He has also been nominated in several categories for the 4th annual International Soca Awards, to be held on September 8th in Harlem, NY.
Soca music was born in the Eastern Caribbean when Trinidadian musicians married Calypso to American soul music. Soca is faster in tempo than Calypso, and it characteristically features a heavily syncopated bass line and dense electronic instrumentation. While Calypsonians typically used their art form for social and political commentary, Soca artists – such as Lord Shorty, Shadow, and Maestro – composed party songs that reflected the traditions of Caribbean Carnival.
Today, a new generation of Soca musicians is found in the likes of Shurwayne Winchester, Destra, Bunji Garlin, Allison Hinds and Machel Montano. This new generation of Soca entertainers has performed throughout the Caribbean, North America and Europe, signaling the ascent of Soca music to popular success. Soca has come a long way from its humble beginnings in Trinidad & Tobago, and evidence of this can be found in and around New York City.
