Our Calypso Needs Serious Attention

We continue to hear lots ah praises about “ our vibrant and resilient Vincy spirit”. It is now exactly ah year since de Grenadines disaster, yet life is still not fully restored on Union Island- far from it . But wid elect-shun due in SVG sometime later dis year, yuh could bet yuh last dollar, dat pull-it-tek-all expediency will dictate dat all ah dat will be taken care of, one way or de other.

At dis moment Junior Panorama is in progress. Unfortunately ah no longer have de passion to attend carnival shows, reasons are numerous, mainly de late starting and ending of shows. So ah bin looking at de Juniors- Mas and Calypso shows Live on TV. De Junior Mas dis year was quite good. Congrats to our faithful and dedicated costume builders. And de burdening question is, when is de CDC and mas band leaders going to demand dat Go-venom-mint full-fil its “going on 20 year ole promise” to provide proper tent space foh our treasured mas builders to work in comfort. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twenty times, dey’ll be no fool on elect-shun day.

Tuesday afternoon was Calypso and Soca Finals for Juniors. Great show. De bothering question is, how much or what contribution do these young calypso singers make in de writing of these lovely calypsos dat dey sing wid so much confidence. De answer is zero. Yes, dey are having fun and performing well singing, but dey are not Junior Calypsonians, dey are Junior Calypso Singers. And dis explains why next Sunday Dimache Gras Calypso Finals, of de eleven contestants selected to face Maddzart, at least half ah dat number not singing dey own composition. And dey’s always ah possibility dat de winner might not be de song writer.

One last confirmation from de president of de Calypso Association with regards to de 22 Semi-finalists. Dey were eight former Monarchs. Four of dem made it to finals; five of de eight write dey own songs,14 of de 22 Semi-finalists doh write dey own songs. One actually won de monarch 43 years ago. And of de 11 finalists on Sunday night, five contestants write dey own Calypso. De other six are Calypso Singers and not necessarily calypsonians.

Basically what ah saying is dat we have ah large number of Juniors singing calypsos, none of dem write dey own songs. So we are not producing real calypsonians, therefore we have ah lot ah wuk to do beginning in de school and wid de Calypo Association. De defending Monarch could very well retain his crown. Happy Carnival. And Wid is gone ah gone again.

One Love Bassy