Casan­dra Thomp­son-Forbes

To­ba­go Chalkie (Alex Gift) is the is­land's 2013 ca­lyp­so monarch.His ren­di­tion of A Spranger's Sto­ry re­ferred to con­ver­sa­tions he had with drug ad­dicts, lo­cal­ly known as "sprangers," at Crook's Riv­er, where they can be found of­fer­ing car-wash ser­vices.

The com­pe­ti­tion was held at the Scar­bor­ough Es­planade on Thurs­day night.To­ba­go Chalkie's song al­so high­light­ed the bro­ken promis­es of politi­cians, us­ing as ex­am­ples Dr Wayne Kublals­ingh's hunger strike last year, the flawed hir­ing of Resh­mi Ram­nar­ine to a top se­cu­ri­ty po­si­tion, and for­mer To­ba­go De­vel­op­ment Min­is­ter Ver­nel­la Al­leyne�Top­pin, whose cred­it card ex­pens­es caused a scan­dal.

He al­so com­pared the con­tro­ver­sies to the dilem­ma of the "sprangers" when he sang the tagline–"Ah won­der if they sprang­ing too." To­ba­go Chalkie walked away with the $100,000 win­ner's prize.New­ly-ap­point­ed Sec­re­tary for Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment and Cul­ture Dr Denise Tsoiafatt-An­gus was on hand to con­grat­u­late the win­ner.

Hen­son Wright (Ca­lyp­so Prince) placed sec­ond with Asy­lum With­out a Gate. Dressed as a "crazy man," Ca­lyp­so Prince re­vealed sev­er­al anom­alies in the gov­er­nance of T&T and re­ferred to the THA Mil­shirv is­sue and the PNM's land­slide vic­to­ry in the THA elec­tions, for­mer min­is­ter Collin Par­tap's re­luc­tance to take a breathal­yser test and the Sec­tion 34 con­tro­ver­sy.

Nicole Thomas, who sang Show Me A Way, placed third. Her ca­lyp­so ex­pound­ed on the many tri­als and tribu­la­tions af­fect­ing the coun­try, in­clud­ing gun and do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, sex­u­al abuse and drug ad­dic­tion. Her ren­di­tion was in the form of a prayer as she asked God to show her a way out of the prob­lems.

Thomas, a cus­tomer ser­vice rep­re­sen­ta­tive at Re­pub­lic Bank, paid trib­ute to her co-work­er Burlin­da Solomon-Sobers, who was mur­dered last De­cem­ber.The To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mit­tee Car­ni­val events con­tin­ue to­mor­row with the Wind­ward Afro Queen show and Wind­ward Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion at the Cyd Gray Sport­ing Com­plex in Rox­bor­ough.

The event is sched­uled to start at 8 pm.

Ca­lyp­so Monarch Re­sults

1. Alex Gift (To­ba­go Chalkie)–A Spranger's Sto­ry

2. Hen­son Wright (Ca­lyp­so Prince)–Asy­lum With­out a Gate

3. Nicole Thomas–Show Me a Way

4. Dil­lion Thomas (Dil­ly Suede)–For a Crown

5. Ken­neth Thomas (Pun­cheon)–Gy­nae­col­o­gist

6. Leslie-Ann El­lis–Who Runs the World

7. Roslyn Reid–With You I Be­long

8. Can­dace Robin­son–Yes­ter­day

9. Lor­nette Nedd Reid (Fya Em­press)–Cel­e­brate with Me

10. Sher­win Cun­ning­ham (Skee)–Cel­e­brat­ing the Jour­ney We Come from Far

11. Giselle Fras­er�Wash­ing­ton (GG)–Stretch Out Your Hand

12. Opuku Ware (Ware)–A Trib­ute to Shad­ow

13. Neville De­noon (Zoro)–Po­lit­i­cal Promis­es