In 2016 an additional award was added, called the People's Choice, then subsequently removed, which involves text message voting by Digicel subscribers.

Dubbed the "Super Bowl of soca music" it is a highly anticipated and well-attended event that has been graced with internationally acclaimed recording artists such as SuperBlue (Austin Lyons), Machel Montano, Fay Ann Lyons Superblue's daughter and Bunji Garlin's wife , Kevin Lyttle, Rupee (of Barbados) and Fay-Ann's husband Bunji Garlin (Ian Antonio Alvarez).

Soca musicians from around the region and the world are eligible to compete in the preliminary round of the competition and must attain the required number of points (in a preliminary judging) to advance into the semi-finals and subsequently the finals which is an action-packed event and has been televised and broadcast live (though not always [2]) to viewers in Trinidad and Tobago and (via internet streaming to) the Caribbean and other regions of the world.

Fay Ann Lyons, the 2009 winner reportedly received the full amount of the promised award (less 5% for administrative costs) when the prizes were distributed on March 20, 2009.

[3] Prize money for the International Soca Monarch has grown over the years and was announced as being $1 million TT dollars for the 2009 winner when the competition was launched in 2008.

Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez, the 2009 winner reportedly received her prize money (subject to a small deduction) at the prize-giving ceremony in March, 2009.

T&T Ministry of Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs have reportedly suggested future prize money be reduced to $750,000 due to the downturn in the global economy.

Since the competition has been split into two back-to-back contests, there have been only three performers to simultaneously capture both titles: Shurwayne Winchester was the first in 2006, Fay-Ann Lyons the second in 2009, and Machel Montano in 2012 and 2013.

Having also won the People's Choice award that year, she is the first artist to make a clean sweep of all the prizes at the International Soca Monarch.