Fireside Chat with Lady Montano and the King of Soca — Machel Montano
Photo courtesy of Prudential Center
written by Shanida Carter
“My duty is to bring you joy and to do things right and make sure people have a good time. It looks like we’re having a good time, but it was always integrity and discipline and high standards and working and that was there from the get-go.” - Machel Montano -
Elegantly draped in all Trinidadian red, Elizabeth “Lady” Montano and soca superstar Machel Montano commanded the room with a powerful presence. Days before the annual West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, mother and son participated in a sold-out Q&A event at the Grammy Museum Experience in Newark, New Jersey.
The two gave snippets of what readers can expect in the newly released “King of Soca” book. The book, which chronicles the life and celebrates Machel’s 40-year-career, started as a master’s thesis at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine, Trinidad. Upon graduation at age 68, Lady Montano had more to share with the world and more she didn’t get to include in that thesis. As Montano’s mother and former manager, she couldn’t think of a better source to document and mark his 40 years in the music industry.
Lady Montano is now on a book tour promoting “King of Soca,” which was published on her own imprint in July. The story of Machel’s “miracle birth” alone, though not told as brilliantly in the book as in person, may be worth the book’s $80 price.
“On the morning of [November] 24, my husband had to rush me to the hospital because I was hemorrhaging. When I’m almost to the hospital, all the pain stopped. Nothing again was happening, and my doctor said, ‘The baby is going to be stillborn because there is no heartbeat, no pain, and I was smaller than this, eh,’” Lady Montano said, eliciting much needed laughter from the audience during her emotional retelling.
“I got to the hospital at 10:30 and I had lost so much blood, the doctor said I needed some blood, and my husband gave one pint and another worker another pint, but it didn’t come until 5:30 in the evening so I lay there, no pain and my doctor is there whistling,” she continued.
Lady Montano asked the doctor to stop whistling and to cut her open to take the baby out, but the doctor said that didn’t make sense. She felt a tingle shortly after the blood transfusion.
“[The doctor] said, ‘Come on, Montano. You gotta do this now.’” Lady Montano said she had no choice but to push with all the strength she had. Despite baby Machel getting stuck in the birth canal, she was able to push him out, but he appeared lifeless. The doctor didn’t give up on saving the baby by pumping out mucus, pouring ice water over the baby’s heart, administering oxygen and lots of slapping.
“He born getting licks. He cried but [the doctor] said not good enough and he start to beat him again,” she said.
After more emergency medical attention, the doctor informed Lady Montano that she’d had a boy and “he will not be sick one day.” That wasn’t the end of the drama. The baby placed in her arms wasn’t hers. Two boys born at the same time were accidentally swapped. The ending not in the book was that the two moms reunited the week before the Q&A in New Jersey and the other son also went into the music business.
The book is not solely a chronicle of Machel’s rise from calypso beginnings to the top of soca music. It also gives history and context to the music and artists who influenced him including Bob Marley, Lionel Richie and Blondie. Machel says his mother is an astute historian. “Sometimes I have to call her to ask, ‘What year did I do this again?’” He continued, “It’s good to have somebody like that recording with you with such passion.”
You don’t have to be a historian or a soca warrior to enjoy the book full of news clippings, archival photos, family pictures, album covers and messages from those in his inner circle as well as hip hop icon Doug E. Fresh and calypso legend Calypso Rose. The cover image of calypso giants Mighty Shadow, Mighty Sparrow and Lord Kitchener, holding up 9-year-old Machel as the Junior Calypso Monarch at Madison Square Garden, belongs on coffee tables across the West Indian diaspora. Machel admits the rise to stardom from that moment at MSG wasn’t easy.
“When people see me in a fete and party, I not feting and partying. This is straight work for me,” he said. “My duty is to bring you joy and to do things right and make sure people have a good time. It looks like we’re having a good time, but it was always integrity and discipline and high standards and working and that was there from the get-go,” said Machel.
Lady Montano covers all the highs and lows in the book from MSG, young Machel’s appearance as the first soca artist on “Star Search” and selling out Madison Garden five times to a string of album duds, concert accidents and untrue rumors about his sexuality.
“I’m accustomed to people talking about us but I always tell my children, ‘What people say about you must be like water on a duck’s back. Let it just roll off and you must know the truth and as long as you know the truth, then everything is okay,’” she said from center stage as Machel’s wife, Renee, looked on from the audience.
Machel received a proclamation from Newark’s Caribbean Commission on behalf of Mayor Ras Baraka before performing a few acoustic songs and later autographing books with his mother. He credits music and God for carrying him through the past four decades and into the next. He says he’s at peace fully embracing his spirituality and advocating for global issues like climate change and food security. In the book, he mentions music, TV, film, writing and producing on the horizon including an animated series, in collaboration with the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s Animation Production Factory, based on his children’s book “Boy Boy and the Magic Drum.”
Lady Montano is equally busy. She’s the director of several Montano companies including Montano’s Chocolate Company . It’s one more title among many that she holds.
The 71-year-old retired educator and guidance counselor said, “I’m a fan. I’m his mother. I’m his confidante. I was his manager, and now I’m his author.”
To find out more about Lady’s Montano’s work click here. “King of Soca” is available online, at a book tour event, or in bookstores in Trinidad.
