WITH an electrifying, inimitable performance of his entry ‘Trample dem’, Jumo Primo was declared the 592 2020 Soca Monarch in the wee hours of Sunday morning.

The tightly packed crowd at D’Urban Park was roaring as Primo took the stage with his creative stage set and role play. Second to none was his performance and crowd response, giving the judges an easy breeze to select him winner of the $2 million prize.

The finals saw 15 exceptional performances. The competition started with heat, when Kady Kish performed ‘Soca my Religion’, with her remarkable vocal ability.
From beginning to the very end, the contestants maintained the heat. However, defending champion, Brandon Harding, whom everyone was targeting to take the title, and in whom the crowd had much expectation, did not deliver. But he managed to secure the People’s Choice Award.

The competition this year did not cut him any slack, as everyone came with their ‘A’ game. Coming in fifth place, and also taking the best newcomer prize of $100,000, was 17-year-old Relon Sumner, who is also the Junior Soca Monarch.

Fourth place went to police officer, Osbert Cain, who goes by the stage name ‘Vintage’. He walked away with $250,000. Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts copped the third-place prize of $500,000 after her energetic and colourful performance of ‘I am 592’.
Maintaining his second-place spot, Steven Ramphal delivered once again and walked away with $750,000.

After winning the Soca Monarch three times, and also winning the title of road march king in 2014, Primo, last year, went into the competition and got fourth place.
This year, he came back with vengeance and spared no man. He told the Guyana Chronicle that last year’s experience is actually what inspired his 2020 ‘Trample Dem’ entry.
In fact, he said it wasn’t long after the competition last year that he sat and wrote this year’s entry.

“What happened last year, created what happened this year. All the trials and struggles from last year helped me create this song. Last year, I wasn’t expecting all that happened, from the technical difficulties to the breakdown with the band; I had a plan and it fell through. But I took the struggle and everything that happened, and through prayers and everything I was able to write and deliver ‘Trample Dem’. And a lot of people can relate to it,” Primo said.

Additionally, just a few weeks before the finals, he was in crutches. He said that he had injured his leg in an accident a few years ago, and coming close to competition night, his calves were paining severely.

This forced him to walk with crutches to ease the pressure on the leg.
All these experiences, he said fueled his fire to deliver the performance he did. From his stage play, he mimicked the healing and deliverance by the hands of God, and incorporated dance performances from a group of differently-abled persons. This won the hearts of the people as they were screaming deafeningly.

Primo said that the song was written for people with trials, and speaks to prayers and belief in one’s self, to help overcome anything and achieve success. That is why he portrayed the message he did through his performance.

He said that he is now entering the Road March competition and is hoping to win that as well.

Apart from that, he is looking to create other avenues, through his studio ‘592 Recording Studio’, for artistes to perform other than just around Mashramani time.