Calypso icon Mighty Sparrow turns 91

AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­[email protected]

He may be in his nineties, but the “Ca­lyp­so King of the World” says he is as good and won­der­ful as ever.

Leg­endary ca­lyp­son­ian Slinger Fran­cis­co, bet­ter known as The Mighty Spar­row, cel­e­brat­ed his 91st birth­day yes­ter­day.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia via phone, the New York-based ca­lyp­son­ian was in high spir­its, though he had no per­son­al plans for his spe­cial day.

“The fam­i­ly will be tak­ing care of me. They said they will take me out; they ain’t tell me ex­act­ly where though. They plan the thing and I know they do what they do. So, I’m right here with them.”

Since the 1950s, Fran­cis­co has been known for his wit­ty, sharp ca­lyp­so lyri­cism and dy­nam­ic per­for­mances, which blend hi­lar­i­ous com­e­dy with poignant com­men­tary on the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal land­scape.

But his style was cer­tain­ly un­de­ni­able, win­ning eight Road March ti­tles, eight Ca­lyp­so King/Monarch ti­tles and the Ca­lyp­so King of Kings com­pe­ti­tion twice.

Many well-wish­ers took to so­cial me­dia to cel­e­brate the icon’s mile­stone, prais­ing him as a pi­o­neer and leg­end of the ca­lyp­so genre.

As ex­pect­ed, so­cial me­dia be­came a dig­i­tal juke­box as fans dust­ed off and shared their favourite Spar­row clas­sics, such as Jean and Di­nah, Mr Walk­er, Doh Back Back, and Ten to One is Mur­der.

Asked how he felt at 91, Spar­row’s re­sponse was as straight­for­ward as it was re­as­sur­ing: “Feel­ing good. Feel­ing won­der­ful.”

Even af­ter all these years, the ad­mi­ra­tion sur­round­ing Spar­row re­mains undi­min­ished. Yet, de­spite the ac­co­lades and the en­dur­ing af­fec­tion of the pub­lic, the birth­day cel­e­brant re­mained char­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly op­ti­mistic.

“I ready for any­thing! Que será, será. What will be, will be.”