About Machel Montano
The dominant figure in soca for three decades, who first performed at Carnival as a child in the 1980s and has held the Road March and Soca Monarch titles more often than anyone. His records set the template for how modern soca is produced, and his collaborations run from Drupatee to Pitbull. He is as much an industry as an artist, and Carnival in Trinidad is organised partly around what he releases. Soca Kingdom, cut with Superblue in 2018, pairs him with the man whose template he inherited.