Michelle Loubon

Karene As­che might be one of T&T's newest fe­male mil­lion­aires in the en­ter­tain­ment fra­ter­ni­ty but her lifestyle re­mains the same. She has not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly switched to op­u­lence.As­che was at ease as a guest of Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's, last Thurs­day evening, and was con­tent to drop off her son at his day­care in Port-of-Spain that very morn­ing, a few days af­ter she won $2 mil­lion.On Di­manche Gras night, As­che, 26, copped the cov­et­ed C2k11 Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle, win­ning $2 mil­lion. Pre­vi­ous­ly, she won $25,000 at the fi­nals of the Po­lit­i­cal Cat­e­gories Com­pe­ti­tion.

The reign­ing monarch ad­mit­ted the vic­to­ry at the fi­nals had not yet ful­ly sunk in. She is still in shock that she topped vet­er­ans in­clud­ing Michael Os­ouna (Sug­ar Aloes) and Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool (Chalk­dust) with her songs Un­cle Jack and Be Care­ful What You Ask For.But wher­ev­er the ebony beau­ty struts in her mane of long, flow­ing hair she turns heads and gar­ners com­pli­ments. Con­grat­u­la­tions pour in from peo­ple from all walks of life.Asked about how she felt be­ing C2k11 fe­male monarch, As­che said: "It hasn't reg­is­tered. Not yet. I am still in shock. I am de­light­ed as well as re­lieved.

"I felt ner­vous...when they called my name. I was in school. It is a nice feel to know you toil every year and then you al­ways get what you want­ed."I feel good to know I beat a lot of vet­er­ans. You can't be too cheeky."

Same day­care for her son

Her face light­ing up, she said: "On Thurs­day, I dropped my son Sha­heem Stew­art, three, off at day­care in Port-of-Spain. My son would be go­ing to the same school."Asked whether she would grav­i­tate to­ward a more ex­trav­a­gant lifestyle; maybe with a fan­cy car and new house, she said: "Cer­tain things would change. There would be change, but I can't state what."For now, she con­tin­ues to live at Vil­lage Coun­cil Street, Laven­tille, with her com­mon-law hus­band Shel­don Stew­art. While kaiso is her pas­sion, she has no plans to ten­der her res­ig­na­tion as an in­sect vec­tor con­trol op­er­a­tor at Port-of-Spain Cor­po­ra­tion.

More im­por­tant­ly, she has no im­me­di­ate plans of switch­ing her genre-ca­lyp­so."I would be most com­fort­able singing ca­lyp­so. I would not want to sing so­ca. I don't have the guts to do the pow­er. But I could try a groovy."The late Mighty Duke (Kelvin Pope) had de­scribed ca­lyp­so as an ed­i­to­r­i­al in song. She, too, swears by the medi­um to ex­pose and high­light so­cio-eco­nom­ic and po­lit­i­cal abus­es in the so­ci­ety."I pre­fer to de­liv­er mes­sages. The on­ly way you could sing on cer­tain is­sues is through kaiso."

Laven­tille cel­e­brates

Renowned as the stomp­ing ground for steel­bands like Des­per­a­does, As­che's singing prowess has put Laven­tille on the map. On Sun­day night, it grabbed head­lines as a place that could nur­ture a tal­ent­ed daugh­ter of the soil.Com­ment­ing on her Laven­tille up­bring­ing, she said: "I was born and bred there. Yes, there is crime but it is all over Trinidad. It's good that some­one like me could up­lift Laven­tille."She said she felt com­fort­able in the com­mu­ni­ty. She added: "When you live some­where from birth you would go with the flow. Every­where you go, you get a taste of both good and bad."

She ad­mit­ted: "I was robbed be­fore." But re­fused to give any more de­tails on the in­ci­dent. She was more con­tent to say, "if every­one likes you, they treat you in a spe­cial way."Af­ter she was de­clared win­ner, she went up to Laven­tille.She said: "There was a nice lit­tle board with my name on it. It said "Con­grats." They said: "I hope you get it for two years straight." They know how to be nice. I thank them for the sup­port."Her pri­ma­ry school al­ma mater Rose Hill RC School was not left out. There she met teach­ers and prin­ci­pal Tho­ra Best who en­cour­aged her and nur­tured her cre­ative tal­ents.

"Good peo­ple would come your way. When they see good com­ing out of you they would move to you," she said. She re­mem­bers singing in events at the school and singing pro­fes­sion­al­ly since age 11. The song was an an­ti-drug song I Am Co­caine.While she's not sure about con­crete fu­tur­is­tic plans, she said: "I plan to go back to Rose Hill. I will be giv­ing a lit­tle con­cert. I will be treat­ing the chil­dren. That would be re­al­ly nice."

Shel­don Reid dis­cov­ers As­che

Her tal­ent was dis­cov­ered at Laven­tille by for­mer Young Kings Monarch, Shel­don Reid.Re­flect­ing on that aus­pi­cious day, she said: "We had a tal­ent show at Rose Hill RC. He was there. I was singing a lit­tle R&B. He said: 'Why not try a lit­tle kaiso?'"He in­tro­duced me to Makan­dal Daa­ga and Broth­er Mar­vin of Ja­ha­ji Bhai fame.Mar­vin wrote My Name Is Co­caine. The song re­mains dear to As­che.While Un­cle Jack is her cell­phone ring­tone, she sang:

"I am more pre­cious than di­a­mond and gold, use me once and I know you would be sold."

Lord Valenti­no pre­dicts vic­to­ry

She thanked vet­er­ans like Singing San­dra for sup­port­ing her at Kaiso House, Queen's Hall, Port-of-Spain.As­che said: "She has stayed there with me. She makes sure I am on time and com­fort­able at the tent. She is my men­tor." She picked up nuggets of wis­dom and tid­bits on stage pre­sen­ta­tion, style and per­for­mance from the state­ment of the per­form­ing arts in­clud­ing Win­ston Hen­ry (Ex­plain­er) and his daugh­ter Stagee Ann. She was amazed at Em­rold Phillip (Lord Valenti­no's) pre­science."From day one, Valenti­no said: 'You would win the crown.' He is a ca­lyp­so prophet."Cou­pled with the vet­er­ans, she was sup­port­ed by the younger bards in­clud­ing Dwayne O'Con­nor and friends like Keisha

Franklin, Tri­cia Mor­ris, Shel­don Stew­art, Ceon Nurse and as­sis­tant man­ag­er Al­lana Hors­ford. Quizzed on what she felt could be done to im­prove C2k11, As­che said: "I think it was a good year. Every­thing went well. The kaiso did not have pi­cong and peo­ple (Ravi B) act­ing up like at the chut­ney and so­ca."

In win­ners' row

1996: 12 and un­der win­ner

1996: My name is Co­caine: The Val­ue of Life

1996: Placed (NWAC) Jew­els com­pe­ti­tion

1998: Won the Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch on three oc­ca­sions

2003: Moved on to se­niors (three-way tie) with Shenelle Hazelle and Olatun­ji Year­wood

2011: Best Po­lit­i­cal Com­men­tary

-Un­cle Jack