Trinidad and Tobago’s self-proclaimed Queen of Bacchanal Destra Garcia is one of the most influential female artistes from the twin-island republic.
Destra Garcia grew up in the Laventille district in east Port of Spain, she is continuously broadening the sound of soca both locally and internationally.
With deep Caribbean roots, Destra Garcia always valued the tradition of her culture. As a young girl, she took after her father and grandfather in her musical interest. Her father was a guitarist, a western instrument influenced by the Middle Eastern Al-oud, and her grandfather played brass instruments both utilizing common instruments true to the soca traditional style. Destra started by experimenting with Calypso as well as R&B and gospel. She was recognized for her mastery in the Calypso style for five consecutive years in school.
Destra rose to prominence in the music industry in her hometown first, where she took an interest in pop-sounding soca compositions and fusion music, including elements of East Indian culture where she performed with the musical quartet, Psyke.
Psyke disbanded after only one year. Following the demise of the group, Destra attended the School of Business and Management earning her diploma in Sales Management.
For a short period, Destra tried a solo career before joining Atlantik in the latter half of 2002. In 1999, she was invited by the Roy Cape All-Stars band to be a member as a part of their lead vocalist, after they heard Destra’s track, ‘Ah Have A Man Already‘, with Third Bass. She had a songwriting collaboration with Kernal Roberts and continues to be the lead singer for Atlantik.
Destra Garcia is one of the leading ladies of soca music, who has revolutionized and reinvented the Trinidadian music landscape over the last two decades. Calypsonian artiste Super Blue established soca as the prevalent type of carnival music in the ’90s and went on to create a new kind of carnival music that stressed more on faster tempos, rhythmic aggressive vocals, and dance.
Calypso is often linked with more reserved music while soca is linked with street festivals. In addition, calypso is distinguished by extensive narrative texts, whereas soca lyrics are typically composed of short phrases that do not have to make a rational narrative. Singer Destra may be seen displaying parts of soca with her rapid motions and quick vocals while performing with electronic studio effects and background lights.
Destra collaborated with the band Dil E Nadan on the song ‘Aur Chale’ in 2006 and has since recorded hit songs including ‘Max It Up‘. In 2007, she released singles like ‘Soca or Die’, ‘Sign‘, ‘We Luv Carnival‘, ‘Las Lap’, ‘Situation’ with Multi-Symptom, and her most popular song ‘I Dare You’.
Red, White, Black was the first album Destra Garcia released in 2003. Well known for her song ‘It’s Carnival’ released in 2003 with her fellow soca artiste Machel Montano during the carnival season which became the anthem of Trinidad and Tobago carnival. It’s Carnival is widely known throughout the Caribbean and by extension, the world.
In 2004, she released her second album, Laventille, which includes her chart-topper song ‘Bonnie and Clyde’, which was used as the soundtrack for a Parrot Bay wine commercial. The 2005 singles ‘Fly’ and ‘We Say So’, and ‘Come Beta’ were among her later hits. More recently, she has released albums ‘D-20’ in 2019 and ‘Queendom’ in 2020.
Destra won the Carnival Road March title in 2003 at the Labor Day Carnival in Brooklyn and also placed second in the Trinidad and Tobago Soca Monarch competition in that same year. She is yet to win either the Carnival Road March or Soca Monarch title in Trinidad although she has come close in the Road March race, placing second in 2003, 2004 and 2009. Despite this, she has become successful in the local music industry, specializing in pop-sounding soca compositions.
Destra Garcia is known as the Queen of Bacchanal, because of the excitement listeners hear in the inflection of her voice on radio talk shows and because of her own carnival inspired event Festival of Bacchanal.
She also is known for having an alter ego named Lucy who is supposed to personify the more sexual aspect of Destra. Lucy is speculated to come from carnival in Trinidad. In her song “Lucy”, she sings about growing up a good girl and good student but one day when she is exposed to carnival, she and her dancing start to become very sexual.
Today carnival consists of women masquerading and showing off their bodies. It’s believed that Trinidad carnival is so sexual because of dominance of women who attend and their preference of highly sexualized dancing.
Destra’s fondness for her and her music being very sexual is greatly influenced by carnival and her continuing to be erotic keeps carnival “sexy”. She is famous for her style. Due to her radical clothing choices consisting primarily of revealing clothing such as tight, short pants, and low-cut bra tops, she has captivated audiences during her performances.
On stage, Destra is wild and explosive in her movements and vocals, sometimes seemingly performing in her own world due to her passion. Destra has expressed her music and fashion choices as a merger between American punk rock and soca. This mix is evident in the instruments used in Destra’s music, as she frequently utilizes rock guitar acoustics with underlying soca rhythms. Her 2006 look “soca fabulous” has been created by local designers such as Meiling and Peter Elias. From a new “glam” hairstyle to her bold, risqué wardrobe, Destra’s new look has been described as one which “is going to rock the town and will be a fashion force to reckon with.
Destra is one of the leading ladies of soca music. The Queen of Bacchanal says “At carnival you are studying so much more: the audiences, what people are saying about you, what you are doing, what you are wearing. Her confidence and dominance are aspects of her captivating persona that make her a strong, dynamic female figure in the male-dominated soca music genre.
Over the years, the queen of bacchanal has won several awards for her contribution to the music industry. She has won the Copyright Music Organisation of Trinidad and Tobago (COTT) Music Award for Female Songwriter of the Year continuously from 2003 to 2008. In 2014 and 2015, Destra won the Black Canadian Awards for Best International Act 2014 and 2015.
