SOKAH - FEMALE BACKLINE

Soca originates from Trinidad and Tobago’s earliest form of music, Calypso. Calypso was created by West African slaves during French settlement on the island when slaves were forbidden to speak with one another by their plantation owners. Instead, they opted to use music as a way of communicating with one another.

Soca developed as a by-product of Calypso. In the 1970s Calypso was losing favour with the younger generation as reggae from Jamaica and Soul and Funk from the USA rose to popularity.

Lord Shorty developed Soca in an effort to restore Calypso’s prevalence. Shorty originally spelt it ‘Sokah’ to reflect the East Indian influence on the genre, however due to a newspaper error it was printed as ‘Soca’, and has remained as such to this day.