Kristy Ram­nar­ie

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

She’s dubbed the Caribbean’s Ca­lyp­so Queen.

Ter­ri Lyons’ im­mense tal­ent has once again earned her the Queen of Queens crown at the Caribbean Re­gion­al Fe­male Ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion which was held at Car­ni­val City, Lit­tle Bay, Montser­rat, on De­cem­ber 30, 2023.

It is the sec­ond time she has won the com­pe­ti­tion. She was al­so crowned the Queen of Queens Re­gion­al Fe­male Ca­lyp­so in 2022.

In ad­di­tion to these ac­co­lades, she was the Ca­lyp­so Queen of T&T in 2020.

“It’s an all-fe­male com­pe­ti­tion and the high­est placed fe­male in your coun­try or your is­land goes to rep­re­sent in Montser­rat to bat­tle for the Queen of Queens ti­tle,” she told the Sun­day Guardian.

“So that’s all the fe­male Mon­archs of the Caribbean–An­tigua, St Lu­cia, Bar­ba­dos, Grena­da, St Vin­cent, and the Ba­hamas were there.

“I won the crown with a song that Maria Bho­la and my­self wrote called House Clean­ing and an­oth­er song en­ti­tled Ca­lyp­so. The crowd loved them, es­pe­cial­ly Ca­lyp­so which had a dance feel to it even though it is an ed­u­ca­tion­al song.”

Now back in T&T, Lyons is ready for Car­ni­val 2024.

She will be join­ing the Ka­lyp­so Re­vue tent this year.

“That tent is Kitch­en­er’s tent which was tak­en over by Sug­ar Aloes. I want to say thank you to him for wel­com­ing me in­to the tent,” she added.

Ka­lyp­so Re­vue, which opened at the Ari­ma Velo­drome on Jan­u­ary 19, will al­so have an open­ing night at its home, SWW­TU Hall, Wright­son Road, on Jan­u­ary 20 and then at SAPA, San Fer­nan­do, on Jan­u­ary 21.

Lyons said she was ex­cit­ed to en­ter this year’s Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion. Judg­ing for the Ka­lyp­so Re­vue tent will take place at the SWW­TU Hall on Jan­u­ary 27.

“I can’t wait be­cause my song this year is en­ti­tled Play Pan­man which was in­flu­enced by my son Math­ias Lyons For­tune who at­tends the Cou­va An­gli­can Pri­ma­ry School,” she said

“My son is play­ing with NGC Joy­lan­ders, he got picked to play for Panora­ma and he is on­ly ten, so I am so ex­cit­ed.”

On the day the in­ter­view with Lyons was con­duct­ed, pa­n­yard at NGC Joy­lan­ders took place.

“From this in­ter­view, I am go­ing to run up the road for 7 o’clock to watch them play for the judges and play like a groupie. I am my son’s biggest fan,” she said, smil­ing ear to ear.

“I think he is the next Boogsie Sharpe be­cause he will get up in the morn­ing to brush his teeth and go straight to the pan and start prac­tis­ing the arrange­ment which they taught him.

“I want to say thanks to Ste­fon and Richard from NGC Joy­lan­ders for tak­ing him on. He is re­al­ly in­to the pan. He ac­tu­al­ly chose that for him­self.”

The ap­ple doesn’t fall far from the tree as Lyons her­self al­ways want­ed to be an en­ter­tain­er.

Com­ing from en­ter­tain­ment roy­al­ty–her fa­ther, Su­perblue, is one of the top so­ca en­ter­tain­ers of his time and her late moth­er, Dionne Phillips, who died in 2002, was a mem­ber of the late Broth­er Re­sis­tance’s The Love Band and back­ground vo­cals for Spek­tac­u­lar Tent.

“I sang every­thing, from timeta­bles to Math for­mu­las be­cause it was easy to re­mem­ber that way,” she said.

“My dad used to pick up his gui­tar and sing, my mom was al­ways singing through­out the house.

“I grew up in a fam­i­ly that had a Bap­tist Church be­hind their house, we were in church from eight in the morn­ing to two in the evening singing. I couldn’t get away from it.

“My mom had me in a lot of oth­er things, I used to dance with North West Laven­tille and, of course, I used to sing there too when they had the folk shows.”

Lyons not on­ly loves singing and danc­ing but al­so act­ing.

In 2010 she won the award for Best Lo­cal Ac­tress for her role as Olivia in the film No So­ca, No Life. Writ­ten and di­rect­ed by Kevin Adams, the short piece is an in­spi­ra­tional film about a young woman from a de­prived back­ground.

“It was my first time ac­tu­al­ly act­ing in a movie, I am very good at mim­ic­k­ing,” she said.

“The fun­ny thing about this is that I showed up to the peo­ple’s awards late be­cause I did not think I was go­ing to win as it was my first time act­ing.

“When I got there some­one said, ‘Ter­ri, you won the Best Lo­cal Ac­tress,’ and I was like, yuh lie!”

Di­rec­tor Kevin Adams is now turn­ing the film in­to a movie.

“We shot the last piece for that last Fri­day (Jan­u­ary 12). It was fab­u­lous. Lat­er on this year, it is go­ing to be re­leased, so I hope every­one comes out to see it.”

Of course, when in the en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try fash­ion is at the front burn­er.

Ter­ri re­leased a new line called Fetish Wear

“It’s Mon­day wear which can be worn over your cloth­ing at oth­er events. It is ac­ces­so­ry cloth­ing,” she ex­plained.

“It’s more like a neck­lace, you can wear it with jeans, a skirt or over a dress. I like to make gar­ments that will en­hance some­thing that you may al­ready have.

“You know we have this thing where we don’t want to wear an out­fit more than once. Alyuh ease me up. I want­ed to cre­ate some­thing that you can use more than once.”

She said the in­spi­ra­tion for the line came from her late moth­er.

“Long-time we didn’t have much and my mum would take her cloth­ing, cut it up and make pieces for me,” she said.

“She would take her jeans and turn them in­to a dress for me, and she would sew with her hands. That’s the kind of vi­sion I grew up with.”

And, of course, hav­ing Su­perblue as her fa­ther has been a perk in her life.

“My dad is a nor­mal per­son to me,” she said.

“As kids, we don’t see our par­ents as fa­mous peo­ple. One of my most mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ences was go­ing on tour with him when I was about nine or ten. At the end of the day, his road is his lega­cy and I have to make my own road.”