Patrice Roberts Edging her name among the elite
Patrice Roberts (born 1986) is a soca artist from Trinidad and Tobago. She currently performs alongside popular fellow Soca artist Machel Montano in his band, Machel Montano HD. She is also a second cousin of singer Bunji Garlin. She came to national attention in 2005 with the hit collaboration The Islands alongside cousin Bunji Garlin, written by Kernal Roberts, which was used in promotional commercials by the Ministry of Tourism. She has been singing professionally since the tender age of 8. Roberts, who is also a model and tenor steel pannist, descends from a musical family. She was educated at Toco AC School and Toco Composite School where she was a Form Five student. In her early career, Patrice first won the 1995 Sangre Grande Junior Calypso Monarch competition. In 2000, she became a top finalist in the competition, marking her ascent in the calypso arena. In the year 2001, she became the National Soca Monarch, the National Library Calypso Monarch and the National Junior Calypso Monarch. She again won the National Junior Calypso Monarch in 2002. Other achievements include Toco Personality Winner 2000 and U.N.D.P. second-runner up 2001. Patrice has also competed in the International Soca Monarch in Trinidad on several occasions. In 2006, she placed second alongside Zan with the track Always Be in the "Groovy" category in 2006. Her collaboration with Machel Montano, Light it Up placed 4th in the "Power" category in 2007. In 2008, she placed second in the "Groovy" category with her song More Wuk. She has been described as one of the best soca artiste in the Caribbean. Some of her many hits included: “Love of my life”, “The Islands”, “Band of the year”, “Light it up”, “Always Be”, “Sugar Boy”, “Till Tomorrow”, “Culture” and “Wuking up”, and most recently a collaboration with Machel Montano “Tempa Wine’. Her greatest achievement so far has been winning the 2006 Road March competition with the song Band of the Year sung with Machel Montano.