Ricardo Drue (1985–2023)

Antigua's brightest young soca star of the 2010s and 2020s.

Ricardo Drue, on the right wearing a backwards cap

Ricardo Drue (on the right, backwards cap), cropped from a photo of YOUNGLUIY and Ricardo Drue. Photo: YoungLuiyEntertainment, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Crop to the figure on the right with the backwards cap as identified by the site owner. Source file page.

Ricardo Drue was Antigua's brightest young soca star of the 2010s and 2020s, a singer-songwriter whose smooth vocals and catchy hooks made him a regional favourite before his sudden death at 38. Born in Antigua and raised partly in Trinidad and Tobago, he trained in music from age five, sang with the vocal group Crossovah, and led the A-Team Band before going solo. His hits “Vagabond,” “Professional,” “Push Back,” and “Rub Up On It” dominated Soca Monarch and Road March competitions, and he won Best New Artist at the COTT Awards in 2015. He collaborated widely, including with Patrice Roberts, to whom he was engaged, and with Sean Kingston and Skinny Fabulous. He died suddenly in Antigua on December 12, 2023, and was mourned across the soca world as a major talent lost far too soon.

Ricardo Drue (1985–2023)

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