Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd is Calypso double crown champion

Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd decisively claimed the calypso monarchy at Dimanche Gras on Sunday July 9 with her performance of the song “The Price of Neglect”.

Lornette “Fya Empress” Nedd is today a “contented and excited” woman having won both the Queen of Calypso and National Calypso Monarch competitions for Vincymas 2023.

Fya Empress decisively claimed the calypso monarchy at Dimanche Gras on Sunday July 9 with her performance of the song “The Price of Neglect”.

This is the third time that Nedd has won the national calypso crown, the other occasions being in 2012 and 2017.

In Sunday’s competition she came up against eleven others, among them five former monarchs including reigning monarch Maxwell “Tajoe” Francis.

Fya Empress beat into second place, Shena Collis, who performed “Beat yo bad with Calypso”, while former monarch Glenroy “Sulle” Caesar placed third with “We Outside” and another former monarch Shaunelle McKenzie took the fourth place with “Who to Blame”.

“I’m content and excited about the competition and achieving both crowns. It was a bit challenging going through some of the process while preparing for each competition, but we’ve made it through shining and on top,” Fya Empress told SEARCHLIGHT yesterday.

The songstress, who is arguably this country’s leading female calypsonian, has captured every senior calypso title on offer in St Vincent and the Grenadines except the Power Soca crown.

In 2012, her biggest year to date, she won the Ragga Soca, Calypso Monarch and Road March competitions and took the second position in Soca Monarch.

Earlier this year on Saturday, June, 3, Nedd was also crowned Queen of Calypso, dethroning former queen Shaunelle McKenzie. She also performed “The Price of Neglect” in that competition.

Fya Empress told SEARCHLIGHT that this year, she only released one song because she was busy “handling business” so did not have time to finish the other songs she wanted to enter with.

“But next year definitely look out for Fya Empress in all three ragga , power and calypso monarch.”

She said in the upcoming months, she will be releasing music regularly, and will launch “Fya Empress” branded merchandise.

“Also look out for the business side of the brand, bringing out merchandise and paraphernalia from all of my performance and winning songs. There’s more coming but you have to watch and see,” she promised.

The other finalists in Sunday’s competition were Gosnel “GC” Cupid, Bernard “Reality” White, Omani Cupid, Carlos “Rejector” Providence, Cleo “Cleopatra” Hendrickson, Robert “Patches” Knights and Phylicia “Nubian Empress” Alexander.