Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for SerafinTrinidadian-born Machel Montano is sharing the love of his country’s music in the new feature film Bazodee, and says artists like Drake are helping to expand the audience for soca music.
Monano is the lead in Bazodee, a Caribbean musical he compares to Broadway’s jukebox musicals. “It was set and written based upon a lot of the themes of some of my songs,” Montano tells ABC Radio, “Sort of like a Mamma Mia! of Machel Montano.”
Machel, who’s been performing since he was seven, wants his fans to leave the film feeling the energy of soca music. “You look at colors, you look at faces, you hear sounds, but you always remember the energy it gives you in your body and how you feel,” he says.
That energy is what Montano says is inspiring artists like Drake and Rihanna. “You know you listen to songs like, ‘One Dance’ and ‘Controlla’ and ‘Work’ by Rihanna. Everybody’s tapping into the sound of soca, to the beat of soca, to the Caribbean energy,” he explains.
Montano, who recently performed at OVO Fest 2016 in Toronto, says Drake wanted him to “come thru” last year, although it didn’t work out. “Drake was there and he saw me and he was like, ‘Yo come thru and sing two songs tomorrow night. Come and mash up da place and sing,'” he recalls.
Machel says making soca popular has been his life’s purpose. “When I started singing calypso it wasn’t that popular, and I took up soca music and I figured that the youths didn’t really love it because it was sort of, you know not as trendy as they wanted it to be. So my whole life’s purpose became how do I make soca trendy.”
Bazodee hits theaters August 5.
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