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Learning English - Music Directory
Soca
 
Dynamic, captivating and demanding some real stamina from the fans! Well, this can only be Soca!

Find out here all there is to know about Soca as both a music genre and a cultural phenomenon, which is becoming more and more popular around the world - with the help of our expert guest ('The Expert'), some fans ('The Scene') and Katrina Leskanich, best known as the front person of the Eurovision Song Contest winning act Katrina and The Waves ('The Words').
 Katrina Leskanich
 
Soca fans Michelle and Erica
 
 
Soca expert Wen'd
 
The Expert
 
As you listen to Wen'd, UK's number one female soca singer, try to answer these questions:
1. Where does Soca come from?
2. What are the essential features of the sound of Soca?
3. What exactly is a Soca fete?

Check if you got it right - read the interview transcript. Try to remember the words in bold.
 
Colin Babb  
The Scene
 
Colin Babb talks to Soca fans outside a London club:
'Hi, this is Colin Babb for the Music Directory outside the Forum club in North London. I'm here for a Soca fete, which they have once a month. And tonight Wen'd will be performing life on stage. There're hundreds of people trying to get in to enjoy the rhythm and tempo of Soca. And I'm gonna join them.'
 
Audio
 
Click above to listen to Colin and the fans.
 
The Words
 
Listen to Katrina Leskanich and three fans of soca music and try to spot the key words used to describe the genre:
 
dynamic: energetic, full of movement
tempo: pace, or speed of music
impression: (strong) effect
fete: a Soca party (the word comes from French)
capture, captivate: if something captures you, or if you are captivated by something, you find it fascinating and exciting
stamina: the physical energy needed to do something for a long time
 
The Music
 
Listen to some fans say the key words as an extract is playing from the Soca tune 'Aye Aye Aye' by Square One