Mobile operator Digicel has announced a major change in the Groovy Soca Monarch competition which will allow one more artiste to head to the finals on Fantastic Friday.
The new element of the competition, the Digicel Wild Card, will see one of four soca artistes join the current group of 14 finalists.
The four finalists — Patrice Roberts, 5 Star Akil, Ravi B and Sekon Sta — will be chosen by fans in a text-to-vote system on the Digicel network.
Fans will have an opportunity to vote for the artistes of their choice by texting individual artist codes to Digicel.
The wild card element of the competition was announced yesterday by operations manager of Caribbean Prestige Foundation (CPF) Harande Eeli and senior sponsorship manager at Digicel, Christopher Edmund.
“The Groovy wild card draw gives fans the power to choose the one wild card that will go forward,” said Edmund.
Eeli said the Digicel Groovy competition had been the fastest growing aspect of the Soca Monarch and added CPF had been in discussions with Digicel for several years to enhance the category, through a wild card element.
While plans for the “wild card” element had been discussed, both Eeli and Digicel’s corporate communications manager Penny Gomez said this year presented a perfect opportunity to launch the wild card competition.
She said that was because of fan reactions to certain artistes being exempted from the finals.
Fans wishing to vote for the artistes will need to text their artist code to GROV (4763).
They have until noon next Friday to vote. Voting begins today.
Artist codes:
Patrice Roberts: PATR.
Sekon Sta: SEKO.
Ravi B: RAVI.
5 Star Akil: STAR.