Ca­lyp­so vet­er­an Leroy 'The Black Stal­in' Cal­liste has died.

Stal­in passed away peace­ful­ly this morn­ing at his home in San Fer­nan­do.

He had re­cent­ly cel­e­brat­ed his 81st birth­day in Sep­tem­ber and was cel­e­brat­ed at an event in Gas­par­il­lo.

Black Stal­in's ca­reer spanned over 50 years and in­clud­ed hits such as "We can make it", "Feel­ing to par­ty" and "Bet­ter Days".

Back in 2014, Black Stal­in suf­fered a mild stroke.

Born and raised on Cof­fee Street in San Fer­nan­do to George and El­ci­na Cal­liste, he is one of four chil­dren. He at­tend­ed San Fer­nan­do Boys' R.C. School.

He worked as a lim­bo dancer be­fore tak­ing up singing ca­lyp­so in 1959 when he made his de­but at the Good Shep­herd Hall in St Madeleine, but did not join a ca­lyp­so tent un­til 1962 when he joined the South­ern Brigade.

He was giv­en the nick­name Black Stal­in by fel­low ca­lyp­son­ian Blakie in the mid-1960s.

In 1967 Black Stal­in joined Kitch­en­er's Ca­lyp­so Re­vue tent and man­aged to place in that year's Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion.

Veteran living legends in music, Roy Cape, left, and Black Stalin (Leroy Calliste) celebrated Cape's 77th birthday at Cape's home in Oropune Gardens, Piarco. In photo, the friends for life hang out at a UWI carnival fete.

Stal­in won the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion for the first time in 1979 (with "Caribbean Man" and "Play One") and went on to win it again in 1985, 1987, 1991 and 1995.

In 1979 he moved over to the Mighty Shad­ow's King of the Wiz­ards Tent and record­ed his first al­bum, To the Caribbean Man. That year he walked away with his first Ca­lyp­so Monarch crown for his two com­po­si­tions, "Caribbean Uni­ty" and "Play One."

In 1985 he won the crown again with "Ism Schism" and "Wait Dorothy", and again in 1987 with a trib­ute to steel­band en­ti­tled "Mr. Pan­mak­er" and "Bun 'Dem", a song call­ing for St. Pe­ter to cast the likes of Christo­pher Colum­bus, Ce­cil Rhodes, Mar­garet Thatch­er and Ronald Rea­gan in­to Hell.

In 1987 he was al­so award­ed the Hum­ming­bird Medal (Sil­ver) for his con­tri­bu­tion to Trinidad and To­ba­go cul­ture.

In 1991 the usu­al­ly dread and crit­i­cal Stal­in took a win­ning turn and walked away with the Ca­lyp­so Monarch crown again, with "Look on the Bright Side" and "Black man Feel­in' to Par­ty".

In 1995 he went chut­ney, with a "Trib­ute to Sun­dar Popo", in ho­n­our of his old friend and fel­low singer.

In 1994 he signed with Ed­dy Grant's Ice Records la­bel, re­leas­ing the Re­bel­lion al­bum that year and Mes­sage to Sun­dar in 1995.

Black Stalin

Edison Boodoosingh

Af­ter fin­ish­ing as run­ner-up to Mighty Spar­row in 1985, in 1999 Black Stal­in won the ti­tle of Ca­lyp­so King of the World with the ca­lyp­soes "Ah Feel to Par­ty" and "Wine Boy", pok­ing fun at the politi­cian Dhan­raj Singh.

Black Stal­in be­came Dr. Leroy Cal­liste on 31 Oc­to­ber 2008, when he was con­ferred with an hon­orary doc­tor­ate from the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, St. Au­gus­tine, for his tremen­dous ded­i­ca­tion and con­tri­bu­tion to Ca­lyp­so mu­sic and cul­ture in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

On Mon­day, 22 Sep­tem­ber 2014, he was hos­pi­talised af­ter suf­fer­ing stroke a few hours af­ter per­form­ing at a char­i­ty show in south Trinidad.

Rel­a­tives said that Stal­in, 73, was rushed to the San Fer­nan­do Hos­pi­tal af­ter he start­ed ex­pe­ri­enc­ing se­vere pain to his back on re­turn­ing home from per­form­ing at the in­clu­sive fundrais­er host­ed by the St. An­drew An­gli­can Church in aid of its build­ing fund.