SAN­DRA L BLOOD

T&T artistes took the top spots at the Queen of Queens Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion staged on De­cem­ber 30 by Montser­rat Arts Coun­cil as a high point to the is­land’s Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions which end­ed on Jan­u­ary 1.

De­fend­ing Queen Ter­ri Lyons beat eight oth­er com­peti­tors for her third win, scor­ing 1,268 points, for her ren­di­tions, Black and Ug­ly writ­ten by Lar­ry Hare­wood, and Ask Yuh Man writ­ten by Maria Bho­la.

In sec­ond po­si­tion was Karene As­che with 1,246 points for her of­fer­ings, Com­pe­ti­tion and No Ex­cuse, while third place went to St Kitts and Nevis ca­lyp­son­ian Queen In­de­pen­dent who earned 1,142 points for her ren­di­tions of Look In­side The Home and Sug­ges­tion.

The event is a re­gion­al fe­male ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion that brings to­geth­er reign­ing and for­mer queens in an in­tense­ly com­pet­i­tive but ami­able are­na.

Lyons, T&T’s 2020 Ca­lyp­so Monarch and As­che, T&T’s 2011 Ca­lyp­so Monarch, set the bar high over the years for all the com­peti­tors.

The 2024 fi­nal­ists al­so in­clud­ed Singing Althea (An­tigua and Bar­bu­da), Mag­gie D (Montser­rat), Shan­ice (Do­mini­ca), Chrys­tal Cum­mins-Beck­les (Bar­ba­dos), Daugh­ter of the Soil (Montser­rat’s Dr Tiffanie Sker­ritt-Flem­ming), and Shan­da (Grena­da and Car­ri­a­cou).

Montser­rat’s hos­pi­tal­i­ty and love came in­to high praise from Lyons who said, while she won, every­one was a win­ner in their own right. She ex­tend­ed kind words of ad­vice which she said helped shape her.

“It calls for a peace­ful mind and re­silience. Prac­tice re­al­ly hard and per­fect the craft,” she said.