They came on stage to deliver a rendition called “Piece Ah De Road,” but in the end, it was the entire championship that they took home, after brushing off challenges from six other steel orchestras in the Sugar mas 50 Panorama Competition, held at Carnival Village in Basseterre, on Saturday night, 18th December 2021.
The victory for EBJ Harmonics was one that they had dreamt about for the past 12 months but they had also spent the time planning and strategizing, knowing that the other orchestras were also preparing to ensure that there would be no potential for a two-peat.
However, it took an awesome performance from the EBJ Harmonics to convince the judges that they were the ones most deserving of being crowned Panorama Champions, at a time when the country is celebrating the historic milestone of 50 years of Carnival.
Dressed in construction workers-typed outfits, complete with hard hats, and props t include traffic cones, police crowd control tapes and no entry signs, EBJ Harmonics matched their melodic sounds with a well-choreographed stage routine.
Thousands logged on to social media platforms, while others followed on radio and television, to witness the splendor of sweet soca music emitting from old oil drums under the command of a youthful core of musicians.
Harmonics, who have built up a substantial fan base in recent years, scored a total of 433 points to secure the title. Their closest rival was Pantastic Steel Orchestra with 416 points and Second position.
In Third Place was Oualie Rhythms who scored 412 points and they were followed in Fourth Place by Young Vibrations Steel Orchestra on 387 points.
This year’s winning prize is $15,000, while the Runners-up will get $12,000.00, $8,000 and $6,000 respectively.
Those not making it to the final four positions, (NGU Steel Orchestra, Nevis Pan Ensemble and Sweet Sticks), will be rewarded with $3,000 each.
The next major carnival event will be the Road March Icons concert, scheduled for Carnival Village on Tuesday, 21st December.