Point Fortin’s Tamei­ka Dar­ius claimed the first ma­jor ti­tle of Car­ni­val 2023 when she was crowned Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen at the 37th edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion host­ed by the Na­tion­al Women's Ac­tion Com­mit­tee (NWAC) at Queen’s Hall on Sun­day.

With her vic­to­ry she fol­lows in the foot­steps of her sis­ter Make­da Dar­ius, the win­ner the last time the com­pe­ti­tion was held in 2020.

Dressed in the na­tion­al colours, Dar­ius de­liv­ered a pow­er­ful ren­di­tion of Now More Than Ever, a ca­lyp­so com­posed by Bri­an Lon­don. At one point in her per­for­mance she even went down on her knees to de­liv­er on the main theme of her song which was an ap­peal to cit­i­zens to join to­geth­er and work for a bet­ter and brighter T&T.

She sang in po­si­tion four in a field of 17 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans.

Af­ter the re­sults were an­nounced, Dar­ius said she felt hum­bled and ho­n­oured at her vic­to­ry and was look­ing for­ward to a pro­duc­tive sea­son.

Chair­man of NJAC Em­bau Mo­heni said the com­pe­ti­tion was not held last year due to the pan­dem­ic. In­stead, a chal­lenge edi­tion was staged and the top three com­peti­tors won au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tion for this year’s fi­nals.