Artist's View: Lil Bitts on Bunji's B-Day Bash

By now you've all heard that Bunji Garlin celebrated a big birthday this past Tuesday in Trinidad. The hottest ticket in town was the artiste's birthday bash held at La Casa De Ibiza.

Garlin and me in Vincy about a week before the b-day

Before the party, I got a phone call from someone in Trinidad offering me an extra pass. Ummm....I don't have a private jet y'all.

During the party, I saw the action on twitter as some of the party guest gave their play by play

After they party, Lil Bitts let me know how great it was...and made me feel a lil dry that I couldn't keep up with payments on my jet. I asked politely for a little review on what went down. And here it is....

On my arrival there were many cars around the club. When I arrived I received a band at the door which allowed me to have free premium drinks all night long. As I entered the venue was pure vibes from the get go. Bunji's manager was there, fellow artistes like: Ziggy Ranking, Squeazy Ranking, TC, Jason and Blaze (red 96.7), Dwayne Bravo (WI Cricketer), Cecile (Jamaican artiste), Benjai, Maximus Dan, Denise Belfon, his wife Fayann Lyons, Shal Mashall, Kernal Roberts, KMC, Benjai, Nadia Batson, Ms. Alysha, Mista Vybe, Super Blue and of course yours truly Lil Bitts. Ziggy, Cecile and Super Blue sang him their versions of Happy Birthday. Then the vibes was taken to another level when Super Blue began to perform. He did his trade mark move of manuvering the mic quickly from hand to hand and that sent the crowd into a frenzy. From there...he did his soca version to Billie Jean which went down great and had people calling for more and he started singing all of his oldies one after the other and totally destroyed the place.

Other artiste eventually ventured by freestyling Squeazy Ranking, Benjai, Ziggy and they also got Bunji into the action as well. Fayann was put on spot and she gave a small freestyle herself of which she executed very well. There was vibes in the party from beginning to end everybody had a great time.

One more thing lol!!...Denise Belfon presented him with his birthday cake, and they once again sang Happy Birthday for him !

If you don't know Lil Bitts, despite the fact that she's just 24, she's been in this game for a while now. As a child she competed in Trinidad's Junior Pan and Junior Calypso competitions, and has always done well. For her, music is a family affair. Her brother writes most of her songs for her, and her mother handles management and bookings, which leaves her free to focus on being a dynamo on stage. She strives to be an all-round entertainer. So when she's not singing Soca and R&B, you can catch her on Trinidadian TV on a program called Tech Wars.

This year, her song entitled "Hold Meh" survived Trini carnival to make an even greater impact overseas, with both the song and video rising to the #1 position on the Toronto-Lime.com charts.

Bitts, girl!! Thanks for the review...

Glad you had a wonderful time.

Love and Soca,

Nurse Karen

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Eye Unit: Happy Birthday Superblue!!!

It is my sincere pleasure wish a happy 53rd birthday to Mr. Austin Lyons aka Blue Boy aka Superblue, Trinidad's true king of the Soca Monarch stage.

I could start listing his accolaides, but I believe you should feel shame to call yourself a soca fan, if you don't know what Superblue means to the genre. Research and get back to me! Lemme help ya!

So, I found an oldie but goodie worthy of a 53rd birthday celebration! Below is a video from Superblue's 1997 Soca Monarch performance of the song "Barbara" He went on to tied for 1st place that year with competitor, Ronnie McIntosh who sang "Ent".

Love and Soca (Everytime!!!)

Nurse Karen

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On De Scene : Faye Ann Crowned De Queen

Lewe go back to Carnival Friday ,Yes! Faye Ann mash de place up with "Meet Superblue". Her performance was on point and it gave me goose bumps especially when she put de mic next to her belly and Junior gave his/her rendition of Superblue. It was beautiful to see Superblue himself on stage giving her performance that extra edge. I wanna commend Skinny on his "Head Bad" performance. He was one of the non-Trini artist who got an overwhelming support by the crowd. All in all, I must say that Soca Monarch was a great show which had the best of the best contending for the title.

Now ah go be honest , I reach there late with Vincy artist Tabia so I missed the groovy portion of the show but from what I heard from the Nurse it was just as great. And I am certain most of you were streaming or have viewed it already via youtube so no need to convince you that Fantastic Friday lived up to their name!

Myself, Tabia and Chrystal at Fantastic Friday

After the show , we got a taste of the sour side of Trinidad . Nurse Karen was writing up her article while at the traffic lights and this young boy took de opportunity to open the car door to try to steal her laptop . Thankfully she reacted by screaming and kicking him and saved her laptop as we were driven away. For a moment, we were all in shock , however we could not allow this to get to us. So about 6 a.m. we decide we all go have breakfast by Smokey and Bunty with the toronto-lime.com crew and Corey Graham from Boomtribe. That turned out to one big lime because everyone from Girl Power deh getting on bad to the season tunes, which was a great distraction to the ordeal faced earlier that morning.

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The Rounds: New Possibilities for 2008

Good Evening Soca Lovers,

I’m Nurse Karen and these are Dr. Jay’s Rounds. We’re two weeks into 2008, and the year is full of possibilities. January 2nd was jump up day in St. Kitts. You already heard it! Grand Master’s Band song called Boom Bam Bam unexpectedly beat out Small Axe Band and King Konris for road march.

In St. Croix, they started a new tradition at Cruzian Christmas Festival. They proved that anything can happen when they crowned their first ever Party Monarch. Congrats goes out to Toby Derima aka Toby Dee of the Xpress band for wowing the judges with his performance of Hands High.

In Trinidad, the possibilities are endless for carnival 2008. The hype has begun for the International Power and Groovy Soca Monarch competitions. The Caribbean Prestige Foundation released the list of semifinalists this week. From the looks of it, the competition is becoming more international than ever! Tizzy is repping Antigua. Mr. Dale, Peter Ram AND Lil Rick made the cut for Barbados. For Grenada, Nnika Francis is back, along with Luni Sparks and Electrify. Then there’s St. Lucia boasting 4 semifinalists in Ricky T, Teddyson John, Allan Piper and Mariann. Then for meh Vincy peeps, it’s Problem Child, Jamesy P and Zoelah.

Highlights on the home turf include the return of Bunji Garlin, who’s in the semi’s with his wife and she daddy…my boy…SuperBlue. Seem’s like Crazy made an impact on the veterans last year cuz Rootsman is trying a ting for 2K8.
Understand, the 62 semifinalists still have to duke it out to see who will compete against defending champs Biggie Irie and Iwer George for this year’s crown. There will only be ten competitors in each category on February 1st. I’ll keep you posted.

It’s going to be a fantastic year musically. January brings us the Air Jamaica Jazz fest January 24th to 27th, and the Barbados Music festival on the 27th too. Then all attention shifts to the soca mecca of Trinidad and Tobago, where the music is coming out fast and furious. With plenty of surprises yet in store.

I’m Nurse Karen and those were Dr. Jay’s Rounds. Text your comments to 9-3-5-9-3-5 or check me out on Nurse Karen Etc at triple W dot mustardseeds dot net.

Now, back to de docta!

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