Stage set for intense Calypso Monarch showdown tonight

Ian Wa­son

Free­lance Cor­re­spon­dent

Three for­mer cham­pi­ons, two queens, and a king are among 11 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who will come up against reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch Helon Fran­cis for the 81st Ca­lyp­so Monarch at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah this evening. The Ca­lyp­so Monarch, the most pres­ti­gious ti­tle dur­ing the Car­ni­val Sea­son, will be part of the Di­manche Gras, the show that ush­ers in the Great­est Show on Earth, Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val.

Helon Fran­cis will at­tempt to join Mighty Spoil­er and Lord Melody to make it a third win. Karene As­che (2011), Ter­ri Lyons (2020), and Ta’zyah O’Con­nor (2023) are the for­mer mon­archs who are try­ing to get their hands on a sec­ond ti­tle and join sev­en oth­er ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to win twice. Yung Bred­da (Ak­e­nathon Lewis), GG (Giselle Fras­er), Kerice Pas­call, Free­town Col­lec­tive (Muham­mad Muwak­il), Nicole Thomas-Clarke, Ri­val­do Lon­don, (Roslyn) Roslyn Reid-Haynes, Rik­ki Jai (Sam­raj Jaimun­gal) are all look­ing to lay their hands on the ti­tle for the first time and be­come the 41st singer to win the cov­et­ed ti­tle.

Ter­ri Lyons, Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2020, is sim­ply look­ing to put on a good show. “I al­ways tell peo­ple I’m not a com­pet­i­tive per­son, but I will use the com­pe­ti­tion to show­case a show. That is what I just want to do. It’s like when you go to a the­atre, you see mu­sic and dance, that is what I just want to do.”

The most re­cent win­ner among Helon Fran­cis’ chal­lengers tonight is Ta’zyah O’Con­ner. The young ca­lyp­son­ian is ner­vous about the show.

“I don’t think be­ing a for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch helps be­cause we all start at ze­ro on Sun­day. So, nerves are still there, 100 per cent,” O’Con­nor as­sert­ed.

The for­mer Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch added that he is not tak­ing his ‘for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch’ sta­tus as an ad­van­tage over those with less­er ex­pe­ri­ence.

“As Valenti­no said, every­body has their part to play in life, and I think one of the new­bies can come up and cut every­body’s tail. Just as I was a new­bie in 2023 and won the Ca­lyp­so Monarch, you nev­er know.” O’Con­nor added.

Rik­ki Jai might not have won the Ca­lyp­so Monarch be­fore, but the mul­ti-tal­ent­ed singer is no stranger to fi­nals or win­ning com­pe­ti­tions. The peren­ni­al Chut­ney King won the Na­tion­al So­ca Chut­ney Monarch nine times. He won the Young Kings Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion in 2001 when he tied with Bun­ji Gar­lin (Ian Al­varez), as well as oth­er ca­lyp­so and chut­ney com­pe­ti­tions. The vet­er­an, who made his singing de­but in 1986, is us­ing all his ex­pe­ri­ence to come up with his ‘A Game’ at the Di­manche Gras.

“With the ex­pe­ri­ence that I have, I will put every­thing in place to en­sure a seam­less and al­most per­fect per­for­mance. One can on­ly hope that noth­ing goes wrong on the night,” the vet­er­an en­ter­tain­er said.

Tonight, the ca­lyp­so­ni­ans will sing to the North Stand for the first time in 14 years, some­thing that will be new to most of the con­tes­tants. Karene As­che and Rik­ki Jai are the two ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to have ad­dressed the North Stand be­fore. The last time the ca­lyp­so­ni­ans used the en­tire Sa­van­nah stage was in 2012 when Du­ane O’Con­nor won the crown with ‘The Hunt Is On’.

Lyons is look­ing for­ward to singing to the North Stand for the first time at Di­manche Gras. “That’s one thing I al­ways want­ed to do, per­form for the North Stand and Grand Stand, but I nev­er got to ex­pe­ri­ence that,” the 2020 Monarch said.

Singing in the two-song com­pe­ti­tion is an­oth­er one of the Di­manche Gras ex­pe­ri­ences Ter­ri Lyons al­ways want­ed to per­form, and she has al­ready ticked that box.

“I was the last per­son to win the Monarch by singing two songs. So, one of the oth­er things I al­ways want­ed to ex­pe­ri­ence is the North Stand and Grand Stand, and I’m get­ting it this year. So, that’s not a prob­lem for me,” Lyons said.

O’Con­nor is wel­com­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence and is look­ing for­ward to singing to the North Stand for the first time.

“I am very ex­cit­ed be­cause I al­ways want­ed to sing for both the North Stand and Grand Stand. So, I think this year is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to do that,” O’Con­nor said.

How­ev­er, Jai, while he sang to the North Stand be­fore, sees a chal­lenge in the NCC’s de­ci­sion to bring the North Stand back in­to the Di­manche Gras.

“I have no prob­lem with it. But it is a lit­tle more chal­leng­ing than if you’re just singing for the Grand­stand.”

The Car­ni­val King and Queen will al­so be crowned at the Di­manche Gras show.

1 Ta’zyah O’Con­nor – Cast Them Away

2 Yung Bred­da – The Mes­sen­ger

3 Nicole Thomas-Clarke – Sac­ri­fice

4 GG – No Vil­lage Can’t

5 Kerice Pas­call – No Con­science

6 Ri­val­do Lon­don – Wa­ter Thick­er

7 Rik­ki Jai – Doh Spoil Meh Name

8 Ter­ri Lyons – Bless­ings

9 Karene As­che – No­body Wins Un­til

10 Free­town Col­lec­tive – Ca­lyp­so

11 Helon Fran­cis – Doh For­get

12 Roslyn – Ca­lyp­so Call­ing Me