DAVID CUFFY

Karene As­che, 27, is the 2011 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch and win­ner of the art form's record-break­ing $2 mil­lion first prize. The two-time Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch gave high­ly pol­ished per­for­mances of her two se­lec­tions, Care­ful What Yuh Ask For and Un­cle Jack at the Di­manche Gras show at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, on Sun­day night to get the judges' ap­proval. In the process, she de­throned de­fend­ing monarch Kurt Allen, rel­e­gat­ing him to sixth po­si­tion, and pushed for­mer mon­archs Sug­ar Aloes (Michael Os­ouna) and Chalk­dust (Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool) in­to sec­ond and third po­si­tions, re­spec­tive­ly.

Aloes' two se­lec­tions, De Cause and Not One Word, earned him $500,000, while Chalk­dust took home $250,000 for singing Wound­ed Pride and a new com­po­si­tion ti­tled Pow­er Of The Pen. Allen's choic­es were ti­tled Do So and Trib­ute To At­ti­la The Hun. Fourth po­si­tion and a $150,000 prize went to De­von Seale do­ing Ah Need Meh Car­ni­val and Retro­ra­ma, while Stinger (Dex­ter Par­sons) placed fifth with Mys­tic Rev­e­la­tions and Two Mil­lion Rea­sons, to walk away with $100,000. Ap­pear­ing in po­si­tion one on the pro­gramme, for­mer monarch Cro Cro (We­st­on Rawl­ins) did not im­press the pan­el of ad­ju­di­ca­tors with his of­fer­ings of Com­pare And Con­trast and Kam Lie and had to set­tle for 11th po­si­tion.

New­com­er Tamei­ka Dar­ius, singing To­mor­row and Un­grate­ful placed eighth, ahead of her more ex­pe­ri­enced com­peti­tors, Kizzy Ruiz (The An­ti Cor­rup­tion Cure and De En­gine Stall) and Ti­gress (Joanne Row­ley) (Ma­ture Woman and Woman To Woman) who were ninth and tenth, re­spec­tive­ly. Bri­an Lon­don's sev­enth plac­ing was dis­ap­point­ing, as the con­tents of his cre­ative­ly orig­i­nal We Fed Up and skill­ful­ly com­posed Fly High were ap­par­ent­ly over­looked by the ad­ju­di­ca­tors. It was no sur­prise that Ben­jai (Rod­ney Le Blanc) end­ed up in the cel­lar po­si­tion giv­en the lim­it­ed lyri­cal con­tent of his songs, but he won tremen­dous sup­port and gen­er­at­ed joy­ous re­ac­tion for ren­di­tions of his huge­ly pop­u­lar se­lec­tions Wine To The Side and Tri­ni.

Con­tes­tants made use of elab­o­rate and at times too-long pre­sen­ta­tions as props for their con­tri­bu­tions, with mo­tor ve­hi­cles seem­ing­ly the item of choice. Even Stinger, who came on stage rid­ing a bi­cy­cle, left in a stretch limo. Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans plac­ing sixth to 12th won $60,000 each. Jus­tice Mal­colm Holdip chaired the ad­ju­di­ca­tion pan­el com­pris­ing Ju­nior How­ell, Bernadette Roberts, Ewart Ser­rant, Jeanette John­son, Lam­bert Phillip (Mu­sic); Melvin Charles, Canute Spencer, Sheila Warn­er, Di­anne Mar­shall-Holdip, Carl Jor­dan (Lyrics); Clau­dia Lewis, Sigler Jack, Khisha Mark, Phyl­lis Cum­ber­batch, Ar­lene Mc Don­ald (Pre­sen­ta­tion).