Guyanese soca/ chutney winners in TT competition receive prizes

The top three performers of this year’s Mashramani Chutney Competition, who were automatically qualified to participate in Trinidad’s chutney finals, were presented with their prize money last Friday at the Culture, Youth and Sport Ministry in Georgetown.

Terry Gajraj, who placed sixth; Fiona Singh, seventh; and Haresh Singh 10th, received the sum of US$ 4650 each for their stunning performances in the competition in Trinidad.

Eighteen persons competed at the February 11 event at the Queen’s Park Oval Cricket Ground in Port of Spain. Gajraj was unable to attend to receive his prize.

“I think that persons were kind of skeptical that this would happen, but we have demonstrated that we are able to do this, and because we have done so, I think that our artistes are better in terms of their exposure to the wider audience in the Caribbean and even some countries in North America,” Culture, Youth and Sport Minister Dr Frank Anthony said during the presentation.

“It is a really premier show and we are very pleased that we are able to partner with Trinidad and to get our artistes to go,” the minister said.

Already, Guyana has started preparing for Mash 2013 in terms of planning the activity and aligning what is being done in the chutney competition, to ensure that the artistes are able to move seamlessly into the competition in Trinidad next year.

“Some of us had the opportunity to go to Trinidad to see the competition and what is happening, and I think there are many things that we can learn from how they do the competition, and I’m sure some of those elements, we will try to incorporate in our competition,” he said.

Minister Anthony also explained that the ministry will be looking to implement, at the end of the competition, the artistes developing either a CD or DVD, which will popularise the competition.

Soca/ chutney convenor, Neaz Subhan stated that, “We must understand the context of the competition, which is done 100 per cent by texting in Trinidad, and the fact that these three Guyanese coming in the top 10, shows the quality of work of the artistes.”

“The intention of the collaboration is to improve the quality of local chutney as this level of exposure for our artistes would directly affect the level of local competition as Trinidad is considered the mecca of chutney around the world,” Subhan noted.