In­nis Fran­cis

Ten ca­lyp­so fi­nal­ists have moved a step clos­er to win­ning $200,000 in the Di­a­mond Ju­bilee In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah on Sep­tem­ber 25.

From a field of 64 par­tic­i­pants, the com­pe­ti­tion was nar­rowed down to 20 se­mi-fi­nal­ists at the San Fer­nan­do Na­pari­ma Bowl on Sat­ur­day.

The show was or­gan­ised by Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­soes Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the Gov­ern­ment.

The show cel­e­brates the 60th In­de­pen­dence of T&T; with a show of pride.

The 20 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans donned the red, white and black colours and ren­dered com­po­si­tions that hoist­ed the twin na­tion for it’s present day at­trib­ut­es from when we first gained In­de­pen­dence in 1962.

In a proud show of T&T’s growth and glo­ry Tamei­ka Dar­ius’ Now More Than Ever and Don­ald Du­ane O’Con­nor’s Di­a­mond Time com­po­si­tion har­nessed pa­tri­o­tism and earned them thun­der­ous ap­plause send­ing them in­to the fi­nals.

De­spite the poor turnout, the ca­lyp­so­ni­ans backed by Vance Rivers and the So­ca Unit per­formed in a mused at­mos­phere to the few seat­ed in the au­di­to­ri­um and the am­phithe­atre.

Each was equipped with the judg­ing cri­te­ria on a point sys­tem; 20 for lyrics, 30 for mu­sic, 20 for orig­i­nal­i­ty, and ten for pre­sen­ta­tion a to­tal of 80 points.

The show’s host Damion Melville said the prize struc­ture was de­signed to award $20,000 for places fourth to tenth, $60,000 to third place win­ner and $100,000 for sec­ond place.

The win­ner will re­ceive $200,000

The last win­ner was Rod­er­ick “Chuck Gor­don” Gor­don for 50th In­de­pen­dence An­niver­sary. Gor­don did make it in­to the fi­nals this time.

Billed to be­gin at 5 pm, those who made the fi­nals along­side Dar­ius and O’ Con­nor are Aaron Dun­can, Bethany Light­bourne, Bri­an Lon­don, Eu­nice Pe­ters, Heav­en “Snakey” Charles, Karene As­che, Morel “King Lu­ta” Pe­ters, and Vic­to­ria “Queen Vic­to­ria” Coop­er -Rahim.