Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd-Reid says that as an artiste who likes to sing, she thinks there is too much emphasis on theatrics in the Soca Monarch competition.
She says she also feels pressured to get involved in the theatrics, but her attempts have been rebuffed by the Carnival Development Corporation (CDC).
Empress placed third behind Gamal “Skinny Fabulous” Doyle and Delroy “Fireman” Hooper.
Skinny had a helicopter from St. Lucia fly over then land at Victoria Park at the beginning of his performance, hyping the crowd.
But Empress said that while she had many things planned, her performance had to be redesigned because of restriction by the Carnival Development Corporation.
“This year, we had so many things planned and everything crushed within weeks,” she told I-Witness News after the Soca Monarch show
“As much as this week (the week before the show), we had to crush every one of the presentations we had and do it over and it was very stressful.
“We wanted to skyline from that roof you are seeing (the pavilion) there straight to the stage. Not something hovering and [patrons] can’t see where the person is coming from. It would have landed on the stage so you would have known, yes Fya Empress didn’t put somebody there, because she came,” the artiste further told I-Witness News.
“They said, no, we can’t do it because we can’t weld anything to there so that means that that whole park needs to relocate soca monarch because it [limits] your presentation and I was very sad about it because I wanted to show woman power tonight and I couldn’t,” the artiste further said.
“So I said, ‘let’s challenge the crowd. We had the crowd for the whole season, they are our fans. Let’s see if they are going to open this space or if they are going to trample me.’ And I think we had a great time. I had a great time with my fans. Thank you guys,” Empress further said.
The thousands of patrons at the show cleared a pathway as Empress was carried above head on a platform towards the stage.
Asked if she thinks there is too much emphasis on theatrics, Empress said:
“Yes. I love to sing. I was given a long list of pin pointers on what I should do and one of them was you need to come with a song for the people and that means dialect, and I am thinking that we have a road that we want to go and we have a vision.
“And if I have to leave from up there and come down there because you think that the people won’t understand, I can’t do that. But let’s hope that they get it soon,” she said.
She further said that while she feels pressured to get involved in the theatrics, she is being limited.
“Things you want to get, you can’t get but you are seeing it being done with others. It hurts. But what can you do? But, I’ll be back next year again,” she further stated.
Way she nah go rest she boring self!
So Delilah, what did you think of the lyrics for “The General”?
she just sounds bitter, how could she be complaining that there is too much theatrics and yet she wanted to up hers? Show woman power by showing sportsmanship accept that you lost and come better for next year.
Fya Empress, because of her exposure, is far advanced a performer than most Vincentian fans are used to. Case in point “Delilah Sparx” silly comment. I think Fya has a point, but also she has to understand and I think she does that this is show biz, and people want a show. What should be introduced is a cap on what performers can spend. Not all artists can afford the theatrics of Skinny and some of the others. We need to make it about the Artiste and their performance…
its not a matter of what a person want to do….. its basically how its gonna be done cant watch what others bring to the table