Benjamin announces state-assisted funeral for Mighty Sparrow

The Gov­ern­ment will ac­cord ca­lyp­so icon Dr Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co an of­fi­cial state-as­sist­ed fu­ner­al, with Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Michelle Ben­jamin al­so an­nounc­ing a na­tion­al trib­ute and oth­er plans to ho­n­our his lega­cy.

Ben­jamin made the an­nounce­ments in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to­day as she paid trib­ute to Spar­row, who died in New York on Sun­day, Sep­tem­ber 27, at the age of 91, sur­round­ed by his fam­i­ly.

She said a com­mit­tee had al­ready been con­sti­tut­ed to work with Spar­row’s fam­i­ly to en­sure he re­ceives “a fu­ner­al fit for a leg­end”.

“Un­der the di­rec­tion of the Prime Min­is­ter, an of­fi­cial state-as­sist­ed fu­ner­al will be held, a date to be fixed,” Ben­jamin said.

She al­so an­nounced that Ca­lyp­so His­to­ry Month, which be­gins to­mor­row, will be ob­served this year in Spar­row’s mem­o­ry.

Her min­istry, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with TUKO, will al­so stage a na­tion­al trib­ute, while books of con­do­lences will be opened at sev­er­al lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing the re­gion­al cor­po­ra­tions, the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, the South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts, the Shore Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex in To­ba­go and the Min­istry’s main of­fice at Tow­er C, In­ter­na­tion­al Wa­ter­front Com­plex.

Ben­jamin de­scribed Spar­row’s death as the loss of “one of the great­est cul­tur­al fig­ures this coun­try has ever pro­duced”.

“Dr Slinger Fran­cis­co O.R.T.T., the Mighty Spar­row, the Ca­lyp­so King of the World. He was 91,” she said.

She ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to his wife, chil­dren, grand­chil­dren and great-grand­chil­dren, the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty, the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and Spar­row’s ad­mir­ers around the world.

She al­so ex­pressed con­do­lences to the peo­ple of Grena­da, where Spar­row was born in Grand Roy on Ju­ly 9, 1935.

“We grieve with you for a son we have shared for 90 years,” Ben­jamin said.

She re­called Spar­row’s rise from Slinger Fran­cis­co to one of the Caribbean’s most cel­e­brat­ed ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, not­ing that he won both the Ca­lyp­so King and Road March ti­tles in 1956 with “Jean and Di­nah”.

Ben­jamin said Spar­row al­so used his mu­sic to chal­lenge au­thor­i­ty and ad­dress is­sues af­fect­ing so­ci­ety.

“He sang the truth when oth­ers kept qui­et. He stood up to those in pow­er, that he did, and he held up a mir­ror so or­di­nary peo­ple could see their own lives in his songs,” she said.

Over a ca­reer span­ning 70 years, Spar­row com­posed more than 500 ca­lyp­sos and record­ed more than 70 al­bums. He won eight Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tles, eight Road March ti­tles and twice the Ca­lyp­so King of Kings ti­tle.

Ben­jamin said Spar­row’s great­est ho­n­our came from the love of the peo­ple.

“It was the way a Spar­row song could play and the en­tire gath­er­ing would know the words,” she said.

“That mighty man, the Mighty Spar­row, has tak­en his fi­nal bow. His mu­sic and his lega­cy re­mains, and it is ours. May his soul rest in eter­nal peace.”