It was a night of mu­sic, mem­o­ries, and mag­nif­i­cent per­for­mances on Ju­ly 26, as the lega­cy of the Mighty Spar­row was ho­n­oured in grand style. The South­ern Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (SAPA) came alive for Thank You, Spar­row—a star-stud­ded mu­si­cal trib­ute to the Ca­lyp­so King of the World, Slinger Fran­cis­co ORTT.

Pro­duced by Spek­taku­la Pro­mo­tions, the event paid heart­felt homage to the liv­ing leg­end, beloved across the Caribbean and be­yond, who turned 90 on Ju­ly 9. A full house and an elec­tric at­mos­phere set the stage for an un­for­get­table cel­e­bra­tion of Spar­row’s en­dur­ing con­tri­bu­tion to ca­lyp­so mu­sic and Caribbean cul­ture.

The trib­ute un­fold­ed as a jour­ney through Spar­row’s time­less reper­toire, re-imag­ined by 11 cel­e­brat­ed per­form­ers. Each act brought pas­sion, nos­tal­gia, and a unique in­ter­pre­ta­tion of Spar­row’s most icon­ic songs, cre­at­ing a pow­er­ful mu­si­cal mo­sa­ic of his un­matched ca­reer.

The evening opened with a crowd-pleas­ing per­for­mance by 11-year-old Zachary Ran­some, whose high-en­er­gy med­ley of Ed­u­ca­tion, Cap­i­tal­ism Gone Mad, and Ten to One set a ju­bi­lant tone. His charis­mat­ic de­liv­ery earned thun­der­ous ap­plause and set the bar high for what was to fol­low.

Vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian Lu­ta de­liv­ered stir­ring ren­di­tions of Slave, Salt­fish, and Good Cit­i­zens, pro­vok­ing both re­flec­tion and laugh­ter. Pink Pan­ther kept the crowd en­ter­tained with wit­ty, an­i­mat­ed per­for­mances of Mem­o­ries, Obeah Wed­ding, and No Mon­ey, No Love.

The mo­men­tum built steadi­ly as Os­car B took the stage with crowd favourites Mr Walk­er and the in­fec­tious All Dem To­ba­go Gyul. Singer Sascha fol­lowed with a sul­try, emo­tive ver­sion of El Reloj, while KV Charles de­liv­ered soul­ful in­ter­pre­ta­tions of On­ly a Fool Breaks His Own Heart and Mae Mae.

De­von Seales lit up the stage with com­mand­ing per­for­mances of Mod­el Na­tion and Both Ah Dem, and Ter­ri Lyons brought en­er­gy and fun with Bang Bang Lu­lu and Jane.

Chuck Gor­don’s pow­er­ful ren­di­tions of Fed­er­a­tion, Ly­ing Ex­cus­es, and Phillip My Dear stirred pa­tri­ot­ic pride, while so­ca star Ron­nie McIn­tosh had the au­di­ence danc­ing to hits like Con­go Man and Drunk and Dis­or­der­ly.

The night closed on a high note with Col­lege Boy Jesse, who brought the house down with his vi­brant per­for­mance of Mar­gari­ta, Mara­jhin, and the clas­sic Jean and Di­nah. His dy­nam­ic stage pres­ence en­sured the au­di­ence left on a wave of joy­ous nos­tal­gia.