BY NAN AND EDITOR
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. August 15, 2022: It’s been 40 years since Trinidad and Tobago soca star Machel Montano made music. Come on September 9th‘King of Soca’, a biography of Montano, will be unveiled in New York City by his mother, Elizabeth ‘Lady’ Montano.
As the “ultimate insider”, Lady Montano reveals the making of the soca icon on her debut release as Machel Montano prepares to celebrate his 40th anniversary in the music industry.
A first-time author, businesswoman and creative king, ‘Lady’ Montano covers the evolution of Machel – the man and the artist – over four decades in her EESM Publishers imprint. From her extraordinary perspective, the mother of the Soca king details the characteristics and stories of the various eras of Machel’s art, while sharing the highs and lows of her son’s journey against the backdrop of the ever-evolving inner world of the Soca legend. -s that shapes it. external expression.
The book is based on Lady’s 2018 MPhil dissertation entitled The Making of Monk Monte: Creativity and Commodification in the Popular Culture of Trinidad and Tobago. At first, Lady Montano said she was tempted to build on it for a PhD, but decided against the academic route when she realized her goal was to make it accessible to everyone.
An educator by training, she sees storytelling as a vital part of knowledge sharing, which she sees as essential to growth and development. of King of Soca therefore it embodies a comprehensive record of the 40-year history of the 47-year-old Machel, who, according to his former mammager, is not well known, much less among T&T’s youth.
Forty years in any industry is no small feat, but it is a particularly remarkable milestone in the music business, and more so in the context of the Caribbean and Trinidad and Tobago, in particular. In addition to Lady Montano’s unquestionable attention to legacy building, for her there is a sense of urgency in sharing the first 40 years of Machel’s history now. She sees this 40th year marking “the end of an era and the beginning of a new one; one that is still taking shape.”
“Celebrating 40 years in music is incredible for me and to have a book chronicling this journey was something I never imagined in my wildest dreams,” says Machel of the book’s release in 2022. In recognition of the country Lady’s unique take on the project, he adds, “I’m honored that it’s happening and really excited for this story to be told by the one person who knows me best. My mother and I have been so closely involved in every twist and turn of this incredible journey that I know her account will be quite vivid and an inspiration to all. Thank you my ‘Lady’, mother, manager and best friend.”
Even with the solid foundation of her 2018 thesis, it took Ms. Montano two years to complete the work. Commenting on the process, she said: “I started writing the book myself in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic when everything was closed and I was in Toco – (a remote, sparsely populated area on the northeast coast of Trinidad.) I thought I was going to finish it quickly because it was all in my head and I just had to adapt it to my master’s dissertation, however, since it stopped being an academic project, the possibilities for what I could now include were endless.
The Montano matriarch’s constant desire to document her son’s story is manifested in her compulsive collection of Machel memorabilia, which in 2015, constituted a full exhibition at the historic Boissiere House in Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad & Tobago. She admits to her relentless pursuit of preserving evidence of all aspects of his life from what she describes as his “wonderful birth” in 1974, and more from 1982 when he officially entered the entertainment arena. .
Her vision for the project was clear: “I was always able to see what the book would be like. I was disappointed when I couldn’t include all the photos, anecdotes, images, and other special things I wanted in my dissertation. So seeing the book actually take shape really created a renewed vision of what it would be like. I am truly grateful for the various teams working with me to bring my words to life.”
Lady Montano believes this biography will resonate with anyone interested in knowing more about Machel. “I am very aware of Machel’s ongoing transformation and the extent to which he has opened my mind to inclusion,” she says. “So while it is said that you have to work with a specific target audience, or a specific country or population in mind for your product, I am satisfied that this work will provide an authentic, revealing and impactful account of the lives of my son in music. for anyone who is open to receive it.”
The initial launch of King of Soca the biography took place in Trinidad on July 26th2022 while the New York City launch will be held in Brooklyn on September 9th as part of a number of initiatives planned to commemorate Machel Montano’s 40 years in music.
