Skinny Fabulous shows he is the real Soca General

Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle has proven that he is indeed a general in the soca arena, by winning both the Soca Monarch and Road March titles for Vincy Mas 2013.{{more}}

Saturday night, Doyle won his fifth soca monarch title with his song “The General”.

His explosive performance was enhanced by cameo appearances by Leader of the Opposition Arnhim Eustace and Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, both of whom endorsed Doyle as being a general.

But what sent the crowd wild, was when a helicopter, purportedly transporting The General, flew over Victoria Park.

Dressed in black military gear and surrounded by an army of dancers, The General stormed on to the stage at Victoria Park, sending the large crowd into further uproar.

Doyle commended his team, who he said were instrumental in putting together the winning presentation.

“Good job to everybody who worked hard to achieve this one goal.”

Doyle, who has been in the soca arena since 2001, explained that there is a lot of hard work, and many long hours that go into his performances.

He said persons who are not behind the scenes would know about this and his team must be commended for their support.

“It takes a lot of dedicated people to coordinate all these things,” he said.

“If you have a good team that is working hard and putting in tireless hours in assisting you with your production, you must be grateful,” he said.

“It’s more a relief now and you can say wow, thank God.

“Because everybody worked hard to secure this win. So, now we can breathe easily and say, yes! We did it,” Doyle added.

Doyle also described Vincy Mas 2013 as one of his better years.

“The last time that I actually had a song that was that powerful was ‘Charge Up’,” he said.

Doyle’s arch-rival, Delroy “Fireman” Hooper, who placed second, was greeted by chants of “Fire, Fire, Fire,” as he took the stage Saturday night.

The performance of the seven time winner of the Soca Monarch competition began with a videotaped message from Ivan O’Neal, leader of the Green Party.

In the message, O’Neal said that the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister were aiding and abetting someone who claimed to be a general, but was an imposter, as he, Ivan O’Neal, was the only real general in St Vincent and the Grenadines. O’Neal said he would send The Undertaker (the title of the song performed by Fireman) to take care of the “fake general”.

During his performance, the former monarch also paid tribute to his former manager and friend Stuart “Rudy” Louie who was shot and killed at Gibson Corner last year.

Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd, who placed second last year, fell down one notch into third position with her song “Earthquake.”

Dressed in all black, like Neo from the movie Matrix, Fya Empress emerged from the back of the huge crowd on a platform carried on the shoulders of her supporters.

Shertz “Problem Child” James was fourth with “Riot”.

The other performers at this year’s Soca Monarch were, Orlando “Syxx” Foster – Carnival Slave; Hance John – Hell Yuh Want; Bruce “Steady Gan” Vincent – Super Natural; Shaunelle Mc Kenzie – “Carry On”; Raeon “Fete King Madzart” Primus – Bobow/Muda Wuk; Eddison “Lively” Mc Dowall – Skin Out; Tamisha Nichols-Lewis – Zero Tolerance; Johnny “Johnny Rebel” Hall – Rebellious; Keith Currency – Pat it; Ryan “Royal” Abraham – Mad Anthem; and Shane “Shaney Hypes” Husbands – “Show Me Yo Wuk Up”.

Skinny Fabulous’ “The General” also received the most air play on the roads and at Victoria Park, and was adjudged Road March for Vincy Mas 2013, a first-time honour for Doyle.

He said he was “somewhat surprised.”

“I just think that once you win Soca Monarch, Road March would not go to you for some odd reason,” he stated.

Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd placed second in the Road March competition with her song “Ketch It”, while Shane “Shaney Hypez” Husbands was third with “Show Me You Wuk Up”.(AA)