When eight-year-old An­ge­lo Gore heard about a com­pe­ti­tion for a chance to per­form with Machel Mon­tano, he be­gan re­hears­ing im­me­di­ate­ly. He grabbed a mic, had his fam­i­ly record him, and sub­mit­ted his en­try.

And al­though he didn’t end up get­ting enough shares to win, the so­ca star still gave him a chance to touch two of the Car­ni­val sea­son’s biggest stages and “gih dem per­for­mance.”

Mon­tano launched his MM En­core com­pe­ti­tion in Jan­u­ary, where par­tic­i­pants had to post a video per­form­ing his 2026 Road March con­tender, En­core. The prize was the op­por­tu­ni­ty to per­form with him at the Mon­day Mad­ness fete at the Queen’s Park Oval on 9 Feb­ru­ary. “I came home from a foot­ball match and my sis­ter send this com­pe­ti­tion from Machel... Mom­my asked me if I want to do it so I said yes and I on­ly learnt it in about 15 min­utes,” he told Guardian Me­dia at his Chase Vil­lage home.