Ravi B ready to defend his crown Saturday, February 19 2011
TRINIDAD NEWSDAY - By RHONDOR DOWLAT - As the only artiste to qualify for both the 2011 bmobile International Power Soca Monarch and the Chutney Soca Monarch Finals, Ravi Bissembhar should be feeling the pressure right about now.
Instead, the Reigning Chutney Soca Monarch is calmly going through the motions of his daily routine, which includes prayer, eating healthy meals, exercise, meditation, band rehearsals, interviews, recording at his home studio and other endorsement requirements.
“These are the moments that I live for,” said the youngest ever Chutney Soca Monarch. “When it’s crunch-time you just have to stay focused on your goals and you will never get that sickening feeling in your stomach. I’ve practised it enough, so that I don’t get that anymore at all. That feeling is caused by doubt and fear and I don’t allow those kinds of thoughts into my mind at all.” If you find he sounds a tad bit cocky, Bissembhar will quickly correct you and use the word “confident” instead.
“Intelligent people know that keeping good thoughts in your mind will inspire good words and deeds and produce a good character,” he explained, “so that’s how I look at confidence. It’s so essential to have confidence in order to be successful at anything we do, but people tend to disregard it and accuse you of being full of yourself when you’re really just full of belief in yourself! It’s a belief that you can achieve whatever you put your mind to and there’s nothing wrong with that or conceited about that!” Bissembhar views competitions as a chance to excel at his chosen craft and chooses to concentrate on giving his best performance, instead of focusing on winning or capturing the top prizes.
“It’s definitely not about the money for me,” he admitted. “Money is just a tool and yes, it can get you nice things, but the nicest feelings you can ever have will always come from the things that money can’t buy: the smell of a flower blooming first thing in the morning, the loving smile of a baby, the genuinely great feeling inside of having worked hard to achieve something you desired – those things are priceless. For me, it’s about challenging myself to give more, to be more creative in my presentation, to try new things and to appreciate the moments as they occur. I see some artistes get depressed if they don’t win and go and cry and stuff: I’m not saying it’s great to lose because it’s not, but if you think about what you have achieved and experienced along the way, there’s reason enough to celebrate that and celebrate life and the opportunity to go at it again.”
Bissembhar has just released his latest and first video for 2011, “Kyah Come/Wey Yuh Dey” and definitely hopes to retain his Chutney Soca Monarch title tonight.
“This year I really set myself some big goals,” he revealed. “One of them was to improve the standard of Chutney videos and this video has definitely succeeded in doing that.
I made a strategic investment in my career and in the future of Chutney music and I bought the latest camera to ensure that the quality of all my videos this year would be up to the international standard of the music industry. Secondly, I wanted to try and penetrate the Soca market and by qualifying for the finals of the Power Soca Monarch, I think I have done that.
The next big goal on my list is to take Chutney Music to Madison Square Garden and I think I’ll need the Monarch title in order to do that successfully, so I’m going all out (tonight) to defend my title and from there, the rest of the year will be focused on putting Chutney music on the world stage.”
