Soca fans will miss out on seeing seven-time Soca monarch Machel Montano at next year’s Carnival in Trinidad, as the artiste announced he will be taking a break next year.
The Trinidadian “King of Soca” announced that during Carnival 2024, he will be completed focused on school.
The 49-year-old is in his second year at the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), completing his master’s degree in Carnival Studies.
As he received the keys to the City of San Fernando at Skinner Park in Trinidad on earlier this month, the singer said he made the announcement last year, but “I don’t think it registered.”
“This is my second year, I am writing my thesis. This is my final year. The work is very heavy,” he said.
Montano emphasized that the thesis was intense as it required studying the history of Calypso, Steelband, and Mas, academic writing, history and social science.
“I am doing all of this because I want to set a foundation for the next level of Machel Montanos who are coming.
“If you don’t know where you are coming from, you can’t know where you are going,” said the Soca star, as he appealed to fans for their understanding.
“I hope you would be together with me in this decision. You would respect and honor and understand my absence,” he said.
Montano philosophized that “to look forward to greater things to come, you have to yin and yang.
“You must sacrifice something for something else. You cannot reach to the horizon if you don’t step off the shore.”
Honored to receive keys to City of San Fernando
Machel Montano, who also has 10 road march titles, said he was deeply honored to receive the keys to the City of San Fernando on December 10, as one of the places he lived and was schooled.
“I have been recently getting a lot of keys, and I have been wondering what is happening, but sometimes you realize when you do the right things, this will happen.
“I am honored, as it is a call for me to be an example to other young people like me who chose the areas I have chosen to excel in life.
“Music is not seen as academia, but if you take it serious enough, as I have done, you can reach very far, and you would be able to stand on a stage just like me.”
