TC wins at last... and how!

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For years now, Barbados' TC has been one of those 'always a bridesmaid, never a bride' kaisonians.

Second and third place knew her well and even though she was a perpetual finalist in Barbados' Calypso Monarch contest and a regular finalist in the Party Monarch contest, she never could seem to make the breakthrough.

Sometimes the judges seemed to mess her up, preferring 'shareholders' like Red Plastic Bag and Gabby to her and sometimes she was her own worst enemy like in 2005 when she had the Calypso Monarch title in her hand after a brilliant first half and then just dashed it away with a weirdly low-key performance of her bigger song in the second half.

But...she did it at last!

Today at Farley Hill, TC won not just the Party Monarch contest but the first ever Sweet Soca (aka groovy soca) contest with her big tune Hot Sun and Riddim.

No longer will she have to endure the 'she's a great calypsonian but..."  discussion.

She got crowns now.

Honestly, the Party Monarch result took folks by surprise, especially since TC was one of three contestants who just re-sang the song they performed like... an hour earlier in the Sweet Soca contest.

The only difference was that she did the 'road mix' of it but I don't know how many people picked up on that.

But for sure, she deserved her Sweet Soca win - even though there were other people with more popular songs going in like Natahlee's What We Do and Mikey's I In Dat, her performance and presentation was simply above the rest.

In the Party Monarch it was more like... well, why not TC? Again, none of the other contestants with bigger songs (Mikey, we looking at you again with the party-smasher Riddum Sekshun) raised the level of their game to a point that made you say 'ye, dem got de crown for sure'. TC's performance was not as surprisingly fresh as it was in the Sweet Soca contest obviously but she did change up the presentation and her costume somewhat and the song got people moving.

So why not TC? She's certainly waited long enough and this like it is the year for islandistas to sweep some titles.

Congrats to her from us here at islandista.