The whole truth about Machel Montano
That’s what Elizabeth “Lady” Montano promises from her much anticipated upcoming book King of Soca.
Lady, as she is fondly called by family and friends, is best positioned to tell her famous son’s story. After all she guided most of Double M’s 40-year music career, starting off as a rambunctious eight-year-old that was “Too Young To Soca” all the way to his ascension to top billing in the genre.
King of Soca, set for release in June, will provide fans with a first-hand account of Machel’s journey and set the record straight about who he really is off stage, Lady said. Machel is currently in the United States preparing for Mele Destinations: Cancun Carnival, carded for April 28 to May 2, at The Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico.
“I wanted people to know the truth. We tend to judge people by what we see, how you see him perform out there and not by what he truly he is. Everybody is entitled to their opinion but at the end of the day you should know your truth. He was not born with a gold spoon. It was not easy. He worked hard, it was blood, sweat and tears to get to where he is and I wanted the story to be told and who better to tell it,” Lady told the Express during a phone interview on Wednesday.
More than a conventional biography the book will also include never-seen-before family photos, as well as stories and anecdotes from those closest to Machel, she added.
“I’m very excited to share the story. I am hoping the true message gets out there. This is not just a manuscript; it has photos, stories, anecdotes and other people’s voices. I am a first-time author, but I’m feeling excited that this can become a bestseller,” Lady said.
King of Soca is an adaptation of Lady’s 2018 University of the West Indies (UWI) Master of Philosophy (MPhil) dissertation titled “The making of Monk Monte: Creativity and Commodification in Trinidad and Tobago Popular Culture”.
Lady started writing the book in 2020 at the start of the global pandemic. While she had all the ideas for the book in her head, it was a challenge to convert the academic text to conversational language she admits.
“I think that was the greatest challenge. Doing the MPhil thesis, I had to be academic. So, the challenge was moving from academic to conversational language. Now, I could talk and tell the story. You know I can talk, but if I have to write my brain goes to that academic space. Thank God I had a very good editor in Dr Virginia McGowan out of Toronto to pull me back. We did several edits,” she revealed.
Knowledge to share
At 71, Lady is a bundle of energy. She recently took a leading role in establishing the family Montanos’ Chocolate Company and is a vocal advocate for helping to restart the local cocoa industry. So why take on the additional challenge of writing and promoting a book? She says it’s all about her personal mandate to share knowledge.
“Sometimes people say I’m this and that, but I believe when you have knowledge it must be shared. It’s something I taught my children, if you have knowledge and die with that knowledge with you it is lost. This book is about 40 years of knowledge from a man who is just 47 years of age and how much he loved his culture and his country,” she said.
The book will also address some of those rumours that have followed the soca star’s 40-year career she said. Lady says both her and her husband Winston “Monty” Montano encouraged their sons, Machel and his older brother Marcus, to always tell her the truth so they can better defend them. Marcus “plays a significant part” in Machel’s journey she said.
“We always tell them to tell me the truth so we can defend you. When they were small they were punished for telling lies. From very, very early they learned to tell us the truth and we always encourage them to express themselves.
“This motivated me to do it confidently knowing I have all the facts. I know my son is not frivolous and he has given 40 years of yeoman service to the culture and his country. He loves it. He goes out there and he wants people to know about Trinidad and Tobago and have the best experience of soca music,” she said.
Reliving Machel’s history has been an emotional task, Lady revealed. She has become a curator of her son’s archives and was instrumental in setting up the Machel Montano museum in 2014. The exhibition featured original albums, stage clothing, music video props and other mementos.
“My emotion is always active. I have always been back and forth dealing with Machel’s archives and going back into it, some of things we pull up it was like a first time seeing it again and I had to double check with him to see if this is true and accurate. Looking back at his development and the evolution I could see now that Machel was always on a spiritual path,” she said.
The Montano family’s greatest asset is their ability to self-motivate and that’s a theme that readers will uncover runs through the pages of King of Soca, Lady said.
“I think it comes naturally. I have always been like this as a child. That inner motivation for me it came from very young and it was passed on to my children. I have always been looking for creative things to do. When my sons started (in music), they put that energy back into me. And Monty is there supporting and the four of us have that high energy striving for excellence,” she said.
King of Soca will be soon available for pre-order. Lady says to be branded a bestseller the book must sell between 5,000 – 10,000 copies in the first week of launch.
We started promoting, hired a marketing team both local and international and we are also looking at partnering with people to come on board to work with me in the promotion and marketing of the book.
“This is unprecedented and I really hope it would be appreciated, and shared. So please support the book and let Lady win a lil bestseller nah,” she concluded with a huge laugh.
