TUCO claims neutrality ahead of Calypso Fiesta

AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

Re­porter

an­ge­lo.je­didi­[email protected]

With Car­ni­val days away, the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) has is­sued an un­usu­al pub­lic state­ment dis­tanc­ing it­self from pol­i­tics and re­ject­ing claims that Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta is be­ing used as a po­lit­i­cal plat­form.

Hours af­ter the draw for Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta at Radis­son Ho­tel in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, TU­CO said it re­mains an apo­lit­i­cal body, es­tab­lished by an act of Par­lia­ment, and is not af­fil­i­at­ed with any po­lit­i­cal par­ty or group­ing. The or­gan­i­sa­tion stressed that it de­nounces any at­tempt to por­tray Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta as a po­lit­i­cal ral­ly, in­sist­ing the event must re­main a cul­tur­al and com­pet­i­tive show­case cen­tered on artis­tic ex­cel­lence and na­tion­al ex­pres­sion.

Reaf­firm­ing its role as the gov­ern­ing body for ca­lyp­so, TU­CO said it re­mains com­mit­ted to uni­ty, in­clu­siv­i­ty and pre­serv­ing ca­lyp­so as the coun­try’s pre­mier in­dige­nous art­form, guid­ed by its mot­to, “By Ca­lyp­so our Sto­ries are Told.”

While the re­lease did not ad­dress the rea­son for the state­ment, it seemed to be a re­sponse to com­plaints from sev­er­al ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and mem­bers of the pub­lic about the judg­ing cri­te­ria used to se­lect the semi­fi­nal­ists. The crit­i­cism has come in light of the fact that sev­er­al top bards did not get the judges’ nod for the semis, with some ar­gu­ing it may be due to an ap­par­ent po­lit­i­cal bias on the part of the judges and TU­CO.

As the 40 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans pre­pare for the se­mi-fi­nals on Sat­ur­day at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, TU­CO pres­i­dent Ains­ley King said pa­trons can ex­pect a high-qual­i­ty show.

“I think that a lot of peo­ple for­get at times, it’s not about a good song, it is not about your pop­u­lar­i­ty, it’s how you utilised your few min­utes you have for your per­for­mance,” King said.

Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta be­gins at 2 pm.

Or­der of ap­pear­ance

1. Nicole Thomas-Clarke — Sac­ri­fice

2. Nakasa “Nakasa” Tahch­er — Judge­ment

3. Du­ane O’Con­nor — Alexan­der Yuh Great

4. Heather Mac In­tosh — Not The Way

5. Arnold “Jaw D” Jor­dan — Thy Ser­vant Heareth

6. An­tho­ny “Squeezy Rankin” La Fleur — Rat Race

7. Cindy “Ife Al­leyne” Al­leyne — Leal Vic­to­ry

8. Dave “Pae3ot” Maikoo — Moth­er Mu­sic

9. Muham­mad “Free­town Col­lec­tive” Muwak­il — Ca­lyp­so

10. Mark How­ell Paul — Cry Of A Young Man

11. Sam­raj “Rik­ki Jai” Jaimun­gal — Doh Spoil Meh Name

12. Sean “Ifa” Singh — Pup­pet Mas­ter

13. Kerice Pas­call — No Con­science

14. Bri­an Lon­don — De Code

15. Sher­win “Be­com­er” Babb — Voice­mail To Moth­er Kam­la

16. Neville “Bun­ny B” Brown — This Is Not My Plan­et

17. Ak­e­nathon “Yung Bred­da” Lewis — The Mes­sen­ger

18. Roslyn “Roslyn” Reid Hayes — Ca­lyp­so Call­ing Me

19. Cather­ine “Kassy” Chan­dler — Cri­sis Of Truth

20. Lystra “La­dy Lystra” Nurse — Dream Sell­ers

21. Karene “The Ca­lyp­so Princess” As­che — No­body Wins Un­til

22. Curlis­sa Charles-Mapp — Iden­ti­ty Cri­sis

23. Mar­sha “La­dy Adan­na” Clifton — One Caribbean Vybe

24. Nicholas Lu­cas — The Tree That Nev­er For­gets

25. Meguel­la Si­mon — My Child

26. Tamei­ka Dar­ius — No Love

27. Bethany “Trin­i­ty” Light­bourne — Dat Is Woman

28. Ad­de­lon “Ban­jela” Brave­boy — Stay­ing In Pow­er

29. Marq Pierre — How Yuh Feel­ing

30. Dil­lon “Dil­ly Suede” Thomas — One Man’s Trash

31. Wendy “Wendy Gar­rick” Gar­rick — Fam­i­ly

32. Ta’Zyah O’Con­nor — Cast Them Away

33. Rod­er­ick “Chuck Gor­don” Gor­don — To­ry Time

34. Jer­risha Dun­can Reg­is-Pa­ponette — Not All Men

35. De­von Seale — Ah Lit­tle Pow­er

36. Sean “D’ Psalmist” Daniel — In The Mid­dle

37. Giselle “GG” Fras­er — A Vil­lage Can’t

38. Ri­val­do Lon­don — Wa­ter Thick­er

39. J’leise Orr — Wolves In Sheep Cloth­ing

40. Ter­ri Lyons — Bless­ings

Re­serve- Am­ri­ka Mutroo — Loy­al to Par­ty