JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Saturday, March 15, 2025

New Junior Calypso Monarch wants to save art form

by

Carisa Lee
18 days ago
20250225

Re­porter

Carisa.Lee@cnc3.co.tt

The youngest per­former to grace the Grand Stand Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah (QPS), Port-of-Spain stage in yes­ter­day’s 2025 Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch says he is on a mis­sion to save the art form.

And eight-year-old Xhaiden Dar­ius, of Savonet­ta Pri­ma­ry School, is well on his way to achiev­ing this goal, af­ter he bet­tered 14 oth­er much old­er stu­dents with his song Ca­lyp­so Will Sur­vive to take the ti­tle.

“At my age, be­tween me and you, and no mat­ter what they say is true, I want all of them to know I would nev­er stop singing ca­lyp­so...and I will take a page or two from Broth­er Mar­vin and Su­per Blue,” Dar­ius sang dur­ing his per­for­mance.

Two of the top three spots went to young ca­lyp­so­ni­ans from To­ba­go. Last year’s third-place win­ner, 16-year-old Ko­quice David­son, of Bish­op’s High School (To­ba­go), was sec­ond with her ren­di­tion of My Plight. De­fend­ing cham­pi­on, 15-year-old Nata­ki Thomp­son, of Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary School, earned the third spot with Cry­ing Na­tion.

Speak­ing af­ter­wards, Xhaiden’s moth­er, Tamieka Dar­ius, who is a for­mer NWAC Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen (2023), said two years ago her son fell in love with ca­lyp­so icon Ald­wyn “Lord Kitch­en­er” Roberts and his song Bee’s Melody.

“So, he de­cid­ed to do some re­search on who is this per­son who sang this nice song and then he got to find out that he was born on the same day (April 18) as Kitch­en­er,” she said.

The se­nior Dar­ius said af­ter learn­ing about Lord Kitch­en­er, her son did a trib­ute for his 100th birth­day cel­e­bra­tion and the au­di­ence com­pared him to the greats like Kitch­en­er and Slinger “Mighty Spar­row” Fran­cis­co.

She ex­plained that Xhaiden likes that style of ca­lyp­so and that was why he start­ed his per­for­mance yes­ter­day play­ing a cu­a­tro.

“When we were prepar­ing for this com­pe­ti­tion, he was like ‘mom­my, I have to find some part of this song to play this cu­a­tro’ he said, be­cause long-time ca­lyp­so­ni­ans used to play and sing,” she said, adding she was hap­py to see her son’s hard work was not in vain.

How­ev­er, Xhaiden ad­mit­ted the com­pe­ti­tion was “very stiff” and he was sur­prised he won.

“When they called Ko­quice, I was the on­ly per­son left, so I know I was go­ing to win, I was very hap­py...Oth­er peo­ple had very good per­for­mances, so I did not know,” Xhaiden said.

The eight-year-old, whose song was writ­ten by Morel “King Lu­ta” Pe­ters, said he en­joys do­ing trib­utes to old ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, as it’s the one way he plans on keep­ing the art form alive.

Both David­son and Thomp­son al­so said ca­lyp­so was their pas­sion and they were hap­py they could place in the top three again. They en­cour­aged young peo­ple to find their pas­sion.

“Be­lieve in your­self, take that leap, just try be­cause in the end it might work out,” David­son said af­ter­wards.

Re­sults:

1) Xhaiden Dar­ius, Savonet­ta Pri­ma­ry School - Ca­lyp­so Will Sur­vive

2)Ko­quice David­son, Bish­op’s High School, To­ba­go - My Plight

3) Nata­ki Thomp­son, Scar­bor­ough Sec­ondary School - Cry­ing Na­tion

4)Tsa­iann Burke, Holy Faith Con­vent, Cou­va- Land of the Mas­quer­ade

5) Clo­rysa Gill, Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies - Born For This

6) Jari­ah Nel­son, St James Sec­ondary School - Be­lieve In Yuh Self

7) Ray­lan Green, St An­then­ian Pre-Sec­ondary School - True Pa­tri­ot

8) Alae­ja Gould-Fer­gus­son, Bish­op Anstey High School - Fix Yuh Front Page

9) Jime­cya Bur­nett, New But­ler As­so­ciate Col­lege - Know Your Worth


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored