Machel Montano is easily the most iconic Soca artist of all time. Love him or hate him, his mark on the genre is undeniable. Since his first big hit “Too Young to Soca”, his string of hits has been endless. It’s a dizzying array of excellence that should be celebrated. Picking a top 30 songs from boy is no easy task but hey, somebody has to do it right? If you have Apple Music, take a listen to this playlist I created that contains most of these songs. And without further ado, here is the list, in no particular order…
- The Fog – A melody so sweet that the pun “fog up the place” is the least memorable part of the song.
2. Big Truck – Listen to soca from before and after 1997 when this song was released. The shift was great and immediate.
3. Like Ah Boss – There will always be a natural enmity between the Machel stans and haters. The brass in this song made them all come to consensus: Machel is a boss.
4. Higher than High – How do you make soca sound glorious? This is one way.
5. We Not Giving Up – When Machel wasn’t focused on winning Road March we got these gems.
6. Haunted – Real heads know this is low-key boy’s best song ever.
7. Advantage – It’s a bit of a stretch but one can say this is Big Truck for millennials.
8. One More Time – A wining tune with RnB style pleading. One of Machel’s best groovers.
9. Mr Fete – A manifesto for the real feters. The video features Machel wining on regular people.
10. Vibes Cyah Done – Sweet and nostalgic. “Two man a hundred woman? Oh gosh, the vibes cyah done” #quickmaths
11. Shameless – One of the most slept on Machel songs and also one of his best. The real heads know though #ifyouknowyouknow
12. Party Done – Pre- Nailah, on first listen people found Angela Hunte’s voice too annoying. They were wrong plus the beat is fire.
13. Music Farm – When a concept this sesame street and ridiculous scores, you know the melody classic.
14. Powder Puff – The best jouvert song of all time. Don’t @ me.
15. Band Of The Year – Patrice did the heavy lifting on the track but Machel did his thing too. It’s also one of the best Road March songs of all time.
16. It’s Carnival – This song should be the background music anytime you call Caribbean Airlines. This song should be embedded in the wikipedia entry for “Trinidad and Tobago”. How does the most iconic soca song not win Road March?
17. Soca Kingdom – You all won’t agree with me yet but in 5 years you will.
18. Bottle of Rum – For anyone that has drunk Machel’s rum 3 Zero…it’s not clear whether he actually drinks rum (I’ll leave it at that). Despite that, this is one of the finest rum songs ever made.
19. Pop a Bottle – This boat ride staple was written by Nadia Batson. And it will still be playing when we’re partying in boat rides, not on the ocean, but floating in the earth’s atmosphere.
20. No War – A pivotal entry in the too small category of conscious soca.
21. Amnesty – Another conscious one by Machel and the number one song I use when people say Soca is only bout “wine and jam”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUtrnL2YO14
22. Possessed – The man travel quite to Africa to work with the legendary Ladysmith Black Mambazo. If the song was a flop, that alone would have garnered respect. Somehow, the mesh created a work of genius.
23. Water Flowin – I went back and forth on this song because it’s hardly ever played any more. But if you were there when this song dropped, the impact was like a tsunami.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9f4En2JtNI
24. Epic – Uptown soca at its finest.
25. Fast Wine – Machel’s best groovy song of the 2010s.
26. Won’t Stop – Aka the song Machel was supposed to push for Road March in 2009 instead of Wild Ants.
27. Pretty Gyal – In 1997 Machel Montano dropped Big Truck, Music Farm and Pretty Gyal. All are classics.
28. Toro Toro – The only reason this song didn’t win Road March was because Footsteps was also released in 1998. It took a classic to beat a classic…the way all things in life should be.
29. Dance With You – This song was so good, Machel remixed it with Mr Vegas and it became a hit the following season. This might be Machel’s best groovy song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPMVtvViXVA
30. Real Unity – When you check the dictionary (or Wikipedia) for Soca Chutney mash ups, a picture of Machel and Drupatee should be adjacent.
Now I was trying not to do special mentions but there are a few that would hurt me leave off. Waiting on the Stage wasn’t appreciated all that much when it was released but it has aged really well. With or Without You with Walker was huuugge in the early 2000s and a staple of all Machel’s early concerts though it has been largely forgotten now. Showtime is Machel basically flexing that he could own bashment soca if he wanted. Defense flies high off Machel’s verse and the beat. Luv 2u 2nite with Magga Dan (now MX Prime) hasn’t aged well but was great in its time.
Famalay is a classic song of course but I can’t really consider it a “Machel song” since Machel is only one third of it.
Let me know in the comments if anything was left off. How would you rank them? Let me know.