First love is hard to forget, or so the saying goes.

It certainly wins the day for the chutney soca couple who, after 16 years of separation, continue to nurture warm feeling for each other, they said.

Radica Paraboo, who inspired her forlorn ex-husband to pen the song that won him the Chutney Soca Monarch title this year, will share in the $200,000 prize money.

Suddenly a celebrity, Kenneth Salick said he will share the prize with the mother of his seven children.

’I want to give she something,’ he said yesterday. ’Ah doh know how much it going to be as yet.’

Salick, 46, of Eastern Main Road, Sangre Grande, wrote the song after Paraboo left him in 1993.

’Is because of her I wrote the song and she deserve to share in the prize,’ he said.

He took the title from ten finalists at Skinner Park, San Fernando, last Saturday night, when the public gave him 11,625 text votes to win.

Meantime, fame is opening doors for him.

Salick has applied for a passport and will travel abroad as soon as Carnival is over to perform with Dil-e-Nadan. And he continues to perform nightly at venues across the country.

Growing up in Sangre Grande, Salick began singing 20 years ago with the Sangeet Stars Orchestra and joined several bands over the years. In 2000, he recorded his first song, ’We Are One’, followed by ’Ram, Sita Ram’. So far, he has recorded 15 songs with Zaheer ’Big Rich’ Khan at the Pungalunks factory in Couva and three with the Gayatones orchestra.

His songs include ’A Woman in Meh Village’, ’Hard Wine’, ’The Bamboo’, ’Coalpot’, ’Tune de Thing’, and others.

With a tour of the US in the works, Salick said he hopes to stay in the limelight for a long time. He has composed over 100 songs and has a CD on sale.

’The first thing I want to do with the prize money is to buy a house,’ he said.

Paraboo said she will use whatever money she is given by her ex-lover to buy a small house. She lives in a rented apartment and receives a monthly public assistance cheque.