Chutney Soca

In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Suriname, Chutney soca music is a crossover style of music incorporating Soca elements and Hindi-English lyrics, Chutney music, with Indian instruments such as the dholak and dhantal.

The term chutney soca was first coined by Drupatee Ramgoonai of Trinidad & Tobago in 1987 in her first album entitled Chutney Soca, with both English and Hindi versions of the songs. The current style of spelling of the term was not established then and she spelt it as "Chatnee Soca". The following year her mega-hit "Roll up de Tassa" was instrumental in creating a commercial market for this type of music internationally. Drupatee has spoken about the blending of Afro and Indo melodies and rhythms in songs such as "Chatnee Soca" and "Hotter than ah Chulha". Chutney is a melody and soca is a beat. Drupatee used an ancient Indian melody called a lawnee with the soca beat in her rendition of "O Tassawalley" and has released a legacy of Chutney soca music.