NARIS­SA FRAS­ER

Twelve-year-old per­cus­sion­ist Ta­fari Lalitte is the 2026 Tal­ent Pot cham­pi­on af­ter wow­ing the judges with a blend of the rhythms that move T&T.

The in­au­gur­al kids’ tal­ent com­pe­ti­tion, host­ed by Dot Ten En­ter­tain­ment and found­ed by Terneille Samuel Her­bert, was held on Au­gust 14 at Queen’s Hall, Port-of-Spain.

A to­tal of 15 con­tes­tants, aged sev­en to 12, served the au­di­ence their best plat­ters from the tal­ent pot in dis­ci­plines in­clud­ing dance, spo­ken word, mono­logues and mu­sic – vo­cals and in­stru­men­tal.

Samuel Her­bert said she was filled with joy to cel­e­brate the na­tion’s chil­dren, adding that she was proud of all the con­tes­tants. “Thank you for hav­ing the courage to step for­ward, em­brace who you are and share your unique gifts with all of T&T.” She said the com­pe­ti­tion was cre­at­ed to re­mind chil­dren that their tal­ents are mean­ing­ful and can be­come vi­able paths to suc­cess.

The chil­dren par­tic­i­pat­ed in de­vel­op­ment work­shops lead­ing up to the event, with men­tors in­clud­ing spo­ken word po­et Der­ron Sandy, so­ca artiste Mi­cal Te­ja, steel­pan play­er Joshua Re­grel­lo and oth­ers.

Plac­ing third was nine-year-old steel­pan play­er Ki­dane Elie, who played Pan by Storm by the late lo­cal leg­end Ken “Pro­fes­sor” Philmore, and im­pressed the crowd as he be­gan play­ing the in­stru­ment from the op­po­site di­rec­tion mid-set.

In sec­ond place was sev­en-year-old Tahj Pariag, an­oth­er steel­pan play­er, with his ren­di­tion of Full Blown’s hit song Re­spect­ful­ly Yours. Jump­ing and danc­ing as he played, he en­cour­aged the au­di­ence to clap along, and they even­tu­al­ly be­came a choir, singing along to the en­tire track.

When Lalitte, the night’s cham­pi­on, came on stage, he was ac­com­pa­nied by two dancers and three sets of drums. He played both African drums and the tas­sa, with the dancers each rep­re­sent­ing both cul­tures along­side him. He then did a quick out­fit change to sport T&T’s na­tion­al colours as he played along to Machel Mon­tano’s En­core on the trap set.

The crowd went wild, and the ap­plause con­tin­ued even af­ter he left the stage.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia af­ter the re­sults, he said he was ex­treme­ly hap­py. “I feel amaz­ing be­cause of all the hard work and late prac­tices. There were times I was re­al­ly tired but I knew I still want­ed to make my par­ents and my­self proud.”

Asked how long he has been play­ing drums, he joked, “Since I was in the womb… I love mu­sic so any time I hear it, I move and dance and I re­al­ly en­joy play­ing the drums.”

His moth­er, Jah­mi­la Brown, said she felt over­whelmed and ex­cit­ed, es­pe­cial­ly as she knows how hard her son worked.

“My heart is filled with so much joy (that) I can’t even ex­press my full emo­tions be­cause the jour­ney was long.” She added, “I’m so thank­ful for The Tal­ent Pot for giv­ing us this op­por­tu­ni­ty and bring­ing back a space to show­case chil­dren’s tal­ent. It’s just so great to share this time with them.”

Oth­er awards were al­so giv­en for team play­er, best vo­cal­ist, most dis­ci­plined and a few oth­er cat­e­gories.

The night al­so fea­tured guest per­for­mances by Khal­nayak Acad­e­my of Dance Ju­niors, Bel­mont Free­town Cul­tur­al Arts and Folk Per­form­ing Com­pa­ny Ju­niors, ca­lyp­son­ian Zachary Ran­some and steel­pan play­er Jo­hann Chucka­ree.