Charged up ‘Skinny’ electrifies Victoria Park

Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle has completed the treble.

On Saturday, July 3, 2010, at Carnival City, Victoria Park, Doyle won the Soca Monarch crown for a third consecutive year, with his song “Duracell/Charge up”.{{more}}

The prolific artiste who won in 2008 with “Head Bad” and in 2009 with “De beast Let Go” had the ram packed Victoria Park fully charged up when he hit the stage at position number 10.

As he has been doing since 2007, Doyle pulled off a performance worthy of an encore.

Before Doyle made his entry on stage, energizer bunnies, as often seen in television commercials, ran on to the stage trying to revive another bunny, which had been robbed of its energy source.

The limp, motionless, pink bunny was revived by applying electrical charge from Duracell batteries.

As the chants grew louder and the flag-waving increased, Doyle slowly appeared, rising on a platform from a hole in the stage, until he was elevated to about ten feet above the stage.

During the presentation, Doyle himself needed a recharge and went into an onstage chamber to do so. But while everyone was expecting the three time winner to re-emerge from the chamber, Skinny burst back into view, giving off bright sparks, from the other end of the stage to chants of “we charge up, we charge up”.

Doyle’s win automatically books him a place in the International Soca Monarch slated for Trinidad and Tobago in February 2011.

Doyle’s biggest and perhaps only threat of the night came in the form of six-time soca monarch Delroy “Fireman” Hooper, who gave arguably one of his better performances in recent years.

With his song “Soca Battle Field”, Hooper came on stage riding a donkey and dressed in Middle Eastern Islamic wear. This sent the entire park into a frenzy. Fireman, who has always had the support of the crowd wherever he performs, changed outfits and dressed in the uniform of a five-star general backed by soldiers armed with high powered rifles. By this time, not even the muddy grounds of the Victoria Park could stop revellers from partying on the soca battle field.

Fireman is the reigning ragga soca king, having won the crown on June 25, 2010, with his hit “Bun Dem”.

In third position in the soca monarch competition was Raeon “Maddzart” Primus with his smash hit “The King Road”. Shertz “Problem Child” James rounded off the top four with his song “Delinquents”.

The other competitors were: Lornette “Fire Empress” Nedd, Garet “Icon” John, Shernelle “Skarpyon” Williams, Bruce “Steadygan” Vincent, Dennis Bowman, Orlando “Syxx” Foster, Alla-g James, Recardo “R3cka” Wilson, Roland “Pressure” Peters, Tamisha Nichols, Fabulous T, Primadonna Bascombe, Derron “Full Clip” Dennie, and Tisa Providence.