Launch of National Junior Calypso Monarch Competition
TriniView.com Reporters
February 17, 2019
Students and teachers of Belmont Boys R.C. School and the Melville Memorial Girls Anglican School
with representatives of TUCO and First Citizens
On Wednesday 23rd January, 2019, the Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organization (TUCO) in collaboration with First Citizens, hosted the official launch of the 2019 National Junior Calypso Monarch Competition. This event was held at the VIP Lounge of the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. The morning’s assemblage included First Citizens and TUCO representatives, Ministry of Education School Supervisor of Port of Spain and environs Carl Thomas, and in the Curriculum Division Josephine Torrel-Brown, representatives of the National AIDS Coordinating committee Mr. Ian Ramdahin, Dr. Ayanna Sebro, Luke Lashley and Heather Rodney, students of the Belmont Boys R.C. School, and the Melville Memorial Girls Anglican School. The programme, which featured guest speakers First Citizens Chief Information Officer Wendell Mitchell and Carl Thomas, also included calypso performances by the 2018 Junior Calypso Monarch, Duane Ta’zyar O’Connor and third place winner, A’janae King Fraser.
Chairman of the Junior Calypso Committee, Ms. Thora Best
TUCO’s Junior Calypso began in 1976 according to the chairman of the Junior Calypso Committee, Ms. Thora Best. She acknowledged that the forerunner to junior calypso was “Aunty Kay”, a popular children’s programme which was hosted by deceased Kathleen “Aunty Kay” Davis, a Trinidadian actress and radio personality from 1942 to 1985 on Radio Trinidad every Sunday afternoon. She also had a calypso competition and a junior calypso competition which was won on two consecutive occasions by Mark ‘Contender’ John in 1966 and 1967.
In her welcome remarks, Best lauded and thanked the Ministry of Education and their brand sponsor First Citizens for their support and encouragement:
“Junior Calypso can get nowhere without our brand sponsor. For the eighth year running, First Citizens has been very kind to sponsor the whole of Junior Calypso. TUCO runs its Junior Calypso activities under the auspices of the Ministry of Education. We can do nothing without the Ministry of Education. We hope that we will continue to get the support that is required to make Junior Calypso the success that it has been these forty-two years. We are very grateful.”
Representatives of First Citizens, Ministry of Education and the National AIDS Coordinating Committee (NACC)
Mention was also made that the National AIDS Coordinating Committee has decided to partner with TUCO under a new category: HIV/AIDS Awareness. Other categories of the competition include humorous, family life, preservation of the environment, national instrument, anti-violence, Gospelypso, nation-building, prevention of substance abuse, party calypso and social commentary. Best also shared that a new category was added to the list this year:
“We lost some of our legends recently . . . three of them within recent times. We thought that it would be a good thing for us to include a category that speaks to calypso legends and so we have added that as a category this year. You can sing about a legend, whether the legend is dead or alive. We don’t want you to wait until they die to sing on them alone because we have some legends still living [like] Calypso Rose and Mighty Sparrow.”
Best explained that there will be forty-nine prizes to be won this year. Each prize also carries a cash prize donated by First Citizens and a trophy. “We are looking around for whatever other partnership we can have because the person who wins the best in category HIV/AIDS Awareness will get their trophy, a thousand dollars and also the prize from HIV/AIDS Coordinating Committee.”
General Secretary of TUCO, Wayne Mc Donald
Speaking on behalf of TUCO’s president who was unable to attend the function, General Secretary of TUCO, Wayne Mc Donald, whose term with the organisation ends in October this year, extended his gratitude to TUCO for affording him the service he extended to calypso: “I think it is time for me to pass the baton and for younger [ones] to come along and do what is supposed to be done.” Speaking on the origin of calypso, Mc Donald lamented that many do not recognise that it was through calypso a voice was given to a downtrodden people who were at the base of society.
He further stated, “I [hear] people talking about a profit motive and all of these things for the art. But there is another side to it. There is a question of preservation of something that makes us who we are today that gave us a voice. We have to understand that narrative that came from calypso is what made us stand up to a class that today would have ensured we were still slaves on the plantation. It was calypso, that cultural thought that came from the narrative of calypso that gave us that strength to be where we are today. Calypso gave us that voice and we have to preserve it and ensure that as we go along, that it gives us that strength.”
“Calypso cannot die”, Mc Donald echoed with conviction. “Calypso is integral to who we are. Calypso is important in terms of how we develop. The reason it was never placed in the history books was because of the force and power it had. At the ground level, calypso gave us our sense of worth, but they did not want to put that in the history books. We have to put it now. It is our duty to put it now.”
Ministry of Education School Supervisor of Port of Spain and environs, Carl Thomas
School Supervisor of Port of Spain and environs, Carl Thomas, expressed that he was pleased to be in the engine room of where our calypso stars are born and to represent the Ministry of Education, recognising the part the Ministry plays in the development of our future calypsonians.
Thomas recalled that some of the past monarchs in the Junior Soca Monarch competition came from the Sacred Heart Boys R.C. where he once served as the school principal. He also served as a teacher at the Belmont Boys R.C. School, where Olatunji Yearwood as a student back then, was involved in singing at the school level. “Teachers in particular, you must share that part of your school’s history whereby past students of your school took part in the Junior Calypso Monarch Competitions and are now prominent citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.”
2018 Junior Calypso Monarch, Duane Ta’zyar O’Connor during his calypso performance
Recognising the efforts of the children/artistes who take part in the competition, Thomas stated that many of the students are involved in writing and arranging their own compositions, and with the advent of social media, he was sure that many students are also involved in the marketing of their product through platforms such as Instagram and YouTube.
He further stated that some of the major themes of the school curriculum, the written and the hidden, have been recognised: “The Ministry of Education is very happy with its association with the Junior Calypso Monarch and recognised the integral part that it plays in the development of our culture, in the development of our nation and in helping each child reach their fullest potential and for being social activists and agents of change.”
First Citizens Chief Information Officer, Wendell Mitchell
Appreciation, support and encouragement in the future of calypso: that was the message highlighted by First Citizens Chief Information Officer, Wendell Mitchell. Mitchell said they are proud of their legacy as a supporter of young people and as a financial institution focusing on the development of young people, they are proud to support TUCO in the staging of yet another Junior Calypso Monarch.
According to Mitchell, “Supporting indigenous cultural art forms continues to play a pivotal role within First Citizens corporate social responsibility. We also see the association with TUCO as a very important one. As the country’s first indigenous bank, we definitely would want to support the country’s indigenous culture, calypso being a key part. We have a strong belief in the indigenous art form being an indigenous institution. Over the years, we have seen many young calypsonians transitioning into the major competitions.”
2018 Junior Calypso Monarch third place winner, A’janae King Fraser
Commending TUCO for continuing the tradition for over three decades, he said that is has been a long time that the committee has been working on the development and the promotion of young talent. Their talent, he said, has led to modern day champions such as Duane O’Connor, Karene Asche, Devon Seales and Megan Waldron who had all graced the Junior Calypso Monarch stage and continue to take calypso to all places of the globe.
In closing, Mitchell shared that calypso has always been a narrative about Caribbean life and that a calypsonian is, in the old term, a griot: the old-time story teller.
(R): Wendell Mitchell presents a cheque to a representative of St. Mary’s College, the school of the 2018 Calypso Monarch
Quoting TUCO’s tag line “By Calypso our Stories are told”, Best declared they have wonderful stories of success that can be told and hopefully those stories will be published in a magazine someday.
During the course of the morning’s proceedings, the audience was treated to calypso performances by 2018 Junior Calypso Monarch, Duane Ta’zyar O’Connor and third place winner, A’janae??? King Fraser. A brief presentation of a cheque by First Citizens representative Wendell Mitchell and TUCO representatives to the school of the monarch followed.
Prizes courtesy First Citizens are as follows:
1st place – A trophy and $25,000.00 and a guest appearance at the Barbados Junior Monarch Finals.
2nd place – $20,000.00 / trophy
3rd place – $15,000.00 / trophy
4th place – $10,000.00 / trophy
5th – 16th place – $5,000.00 / trophy
Every other category receives a thousand dollars and a trophy. There is also the option of two scholarships: one is at TTHTI and the other at COSTAATT. The school of the Monarch will also be awarded five thousand dollars for their music programme.
TUCO, First Citizens Junior Calypso Monarch Launch 2019 in pictures:
www.trinisoca.com/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=386163