Machel Montano

Who he is

If you hear one name shouted at a Trinidad fete, it is probably Machel's. Machel Montano was born in Port of Spain on 24 November 1974, and his own biography dates his career to 1982, when he was seven. By nine he had formed his first band, his debut album Too Young To Soca came out in 1985, and in 1986 he took soca onto US network television on Star Search.¹ In May 1984, still a child, he played the Felt Forum at Madison Square Garden as a support act for the Mighty Sparrow.¹

Four decades later he is the reference point for modern soca. Trinis call him "Monk" or simply the King of Soca, and the title is backed by numbers that no one else in the artform can match.

Signature sound and key songs

Machel's lane is high-energy power soca built for a moving band: big call-and-response hooks, flag-waving and jump-up instructions, and a stage show that runs at full speed for hours. He also crosses over easily, from his early-2000s anthem "It's Carnival" with Destra Garcia to collaborations with international pop and dancehall acts.²

His Road March winners are the best map of his career: "Big Truck" in 1997, "Band of the Year" with Patrice Roberts in 2006, "Ministry of Road" in 2014, "Like Ah Boss" in 2015, "Waiting on the Stage" in 2016, "Soca Kingdom" with Superblue in 2018 and "Famalay" with Skinny Fabulous and Bunji Garlin in 2019.^1,3,4 "Ministry of Road" also earned him a Soul Train Award for Best International Performance in November 2014.¹

Carnival legacy

The Road March goes to the song played most often at the judging points on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, and it is the people's verdict on the season. Machel's "Pardy" took the 2025 title with 267 plays, just ahead of Bunji Garlin's "Carry It" on 253, drawing level with Lord Kitchener's 11 wins.⁵ A year later "Encore" was played 171 times, ahead of Voice's "Cyah Behave" (127) and Bunji Garlin's "Still a Road Man" (97), giving Machel a record 12th title and breaking a mark that had stood since Kitchener's final win in 1976.^6,3

He has won across categories too. After his 2025 Road March, the Trinidad Express tallied five Power Soca Monarch wins, two Groovy Soca Monarch wins, a Young King title, a Calypso Monarch and a Chutney Soca Monarch alongside his Road Marches, and the Trinidad Guardian called him the country's most decorated calypso and soca artiste.^5,7 In 2024 he entered the National Calypso Monarch competition with "Soul of Calypso" and won it at Dimanche Gras in the Queen's Park Savannah.¹ In September 2022 he received the Hummingbird Medal (Gold), one of Trinidad and Tobago's national awards.¹

Start here

• "Encore" (2026): the record-breaking 12th Road March.
• "Pardy" (2025): the 11th, and a masterclass in a song built for the road.
• "Like Ah Boss" (2015): pure Carnival Tuesday swagger.
• "Famalay" (2019): with Skinny Fabulous and Bunji Garlin, three generations of soca on one track.
• "Big Truck" (1997): where the Road March run began.
• "Soul of Calypso" (2024): the calypso that won him the Monarch crown.

Sources

1. Machel Montano official website: Biography (opens in a new tab) ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. GRAMMY.com: 5 Artists Essential to Contemporary Soca (2023) (opens in a new tab) ↩

3. Trinidad Express: Machel breaks Kitch's record (2026) (opens in a new tab) ↩ ↩²

4. NALIS: Carnival Winners 2006 (archived) (opens in a new tab) ↩

5. Trinidad Express: Machel cops 11th Road March title (2025) (opens in a new tab) ↩ ↩²

6. Trinidad Guardian: Machel Montano claims 12th Road March title (2026) (opens in a new tab) ↩

7. Trinidad Guardian: Machel passes Superblue as T&T's most decorated calypso/soca artiste (2025) (opens in a new tab) ↩