Soca artiste Ricardo Drew was among the crowd’s favourites at the 2012 Soca Monarch semi-finals. Drew rocked the crowd with his performances of Superman in the Jumpy category and Suga in the groovy segment of the competition. The show took place Wednesday night at Paradise Lawn.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua – While awaiting the results of Wednesday’s Party Monarch semi-finals, some residents have blasted organisers for allowing the night’s DJ to play too many Trinidad & Tobago compositions.

Selections from the twin island republic are a regular part of fetes, parties and local radio stations here, but on Wednesday night Soca lovers decided they would have none of it.

Even after being warned by the Master of Ceremony on two separate occasions, the DJ insisted on playing songs not made in Antigua.

The following morning, listeners took to the airwaves of OBSERVER Media to voice their frustration.

They told Coffee Break host Cleveroy Thomas that selections were inappropriate and were being promoted at a time when local music should take prominence.

And that was not the only spot of bother for attendees who want organisers to limit the time taken to move from one performer to the other for future shows.

Patrons reported that the show was enjoyable, despite the rain, which interrupted performances on several occasions.

About 40 performers competed in both the groovy and tempo round of the competition which started late and ended later than anticipated.

Results of the competition were not released on the night of the competition and they were not available up until news time.

Ten competitors are expected to advance to the finals of the LIME Party Monarch Competition which will be held at Carnival City on August 4.

Claudette Peters, the reigning groovy monarch, Tian Winter and Ricardo Drue were among crowd favourites.