Big calypso battle royale set for Victoria Park Sunday

The 11 Calypso finalists have been announced after last week’s semifinals, and performers from each Calypso tent are gearing up to fight for the coveted title of Calypso Monarch 2022.

‘Kaiso Kaiso’ fans gathered in their numbers at ‘Ting Nice Agen’ at the Victoria Park on Friday, June 24.
Along with the expected live band and witty lyrics, 22 Calypsonians used sequins, suits and face paint to bring their performance to life for their audience.

The crowd rivalled and perhaps surpassed that of the finals three years ago, in 2019, which was the last Carnival before the pandemic took hold of St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) in early 2020.

“Semifinals crowd was bigger than I’ve seen compared to 2018,2019. They had a really decent crowd considering the attendance that we’ve had at Calypso over the years and so that’s a good thing. So maybe next year would be even bigger,” said reigning Calypso Monarch, Shaunelle McKenzie, of the Upstage Calypso tent who also performed at the event.

Yesterday, June 27, SEARCHLIGHT reached out to McKenzie, who will be defending her title during Sunday’s “PanKaiMas” which will be held from 8:00 p.m at the Victoria Park.

During the interview yesterday, she observed that for the members of the Upstage tent “Everybody was excited to get back on stage. During the preliminary judging we were one of two tents with majority pick…”

Three members of their Tent were selected for the finals, she said, “so we’re pretty excited about that and everybody’s determined to go through the finals and do their best.”

Performing on July 3 from the Upstage Tent are: Fitzroy ‘Bro Ebony’ Joseph with his song “No Horn”; Sheena Collis with “Ain’t Easier” and Gosnel ‘GC’ Cupid, his song being, “Becket Hold On”.

The reserve, Omani Cupid, is also from the Upstage Calypso Tent.

From the On Tour Calypso Tent, Elvis ‘Abijah’ Abbey will be at the finals with “Who put them so dead”; Grantley ‘Ipa’ Constance with his “Ah can’t breathe”; and Alvin ‘Zion-I’ Dennie with his popular “Hypocrites.”

“A lot of people in our tent have a different style, nobody sounds the same. And our topics are always different and that is what makes our tent so attractive because we have people coming from different backgrounds and singing about different issues,” ‘Ipa’ told SEARCHLIGHT in an interview yesterday, speaking on the subject of the 2022 atmosphere around the Tents.

Constance, who got the idea for “Ah can’t breathe” after George Floyd was killed at the hands of a police officer in the United States of America (USA), has been enjoying performing and wants to win.

“…You have to get that confidence and that flawlessness in your rendition and presentation that night in order to get that crowd to like you, and I am hoping to do my utmost best to get the crown because it’s a prestigious award,” the finalist said.

Having been in the arena for 38/39 years, the Calypsonian could comment on the size of the crowd at the semifinals.

“I could tell you the Calypso this year seemed to be one of the better years in years gone by. We [saw] a turn out in patrons this year that we haven’t seen in a long while,” he disclosed.

Ipa added, “…So it seems as though Calypso is alive and well.”

The Graduates Calypso Tent snagged the most finalists going into PanKaiMas.

These are: Kingsley ‘Hero’ Roberts who sang “‘They Don’t Know St. Vincent”; Maxwell ‘Tajoe’ Francis who got the crowd going with his “Playing Devil’s Advocate”; Damian ‘Boney man’ Da Souza who asked “Where the Pryme money gone?”; Glenroy ‘Sulle’ Caesar with his “Calypso Alphabet”; and Glenroy ‘Homey’ Delpesche with “Up Up Up Up”.

Efforts to contact a representative from the Tent up to news time were unsuccessful.