CARISA LEE & BO­BIE-LEE DIXON con­tributed to this re­port.

The ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty was plunged in­to mourn­ing to­day with news of the pass­ing of San­dra Des Vi­gnes-Milling­ton, known and loved for her hard-hit­ting so­cial com­men­taries and be­ing tow-time Ca­lyp­so Monarch, Singing San­dra.

The an­nounce­ment con­cern­ing the 64-year-old artiste’s pass­ing was made on her of­fi­cial Face­book page at about 7 am. 

“This is not a hoax. More in­for­ma­tion will be dis­sem­i­nat­ed in due course. Con­do­lences to the love ones of Queen Singing San­dra.  ‘Dear loy­al fans and sup­port­ers world­wide.  It is with deep rre­gret that you be in­formed of the pass­ing of Na­tion­al Icon San Des Vi­gnes, The Singing San­dra, who passed away last night.  More in­for­ma­tion will be sent when made avail­able’,” the state­ment read.

Trib­utes have be­gun pour­ing in for the for­mer Ca­lyp­so Monarch from lead­ing lights in the lo­cal en­ter­tain­ment in­dus­try.

Fay-Ann Lyons de­scribed Singing San­dra as “the em­bod­i­ment of a pow­er­ful fe­male Artiste” who al­ways had a mes­sage in her mu­sic, and “Queen Moth­er of Ca­lyp­so”.

Bun­ji Gar­lin sent out con­do­lences to those loved ones whom San­dra has left be­hind with her pass­ing on and ac­knowl­edged her lov­ing men­tor­ship.

“She nev­er feared com­ing to all those youth events of all sorts and shin­ing bright as an ex­am­ple that tal­ent trumps gaps of any type. We were blessed to have such an icon be­long­ing to T&T,” Bun­ji said.

Le­ston Paul lament­ed San­dra’s loss, not­ing that it is a great loss to the ca­lyp­so in­dus­try.

Nicky Cros­by not­ed on her In­sta­gram feed that she, too, like Bun­ji Gar­lin, ben­e­fit­ted from Singing San­dra’s men­tor­ship.

“Heart­bro­ken this morn­ing. Our beloved Singing San­dra has tran­si­tioned this morn­ing. Can’t be­lieve it. A woman who held my hand in the ear­lies of my ca­reer. And con­tin­ued hold­ing it. She was moth­er, sis­ter, friend to many. Rest well, my friend. You did well…”

The last post the cul­tur­al icon made on her per­son­al Face­book page was on Jan­u­ary 4th, 2020, a mu­si­cal gift she left this coun­try, ti­tled ONE DAY WITH­OUT A MUR­DER, avail­able here…  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzes­r­tYni­Hc

On her per­son­al In­sta­gram feed, Singing San­dra’s mes­sage to the world is a sim­ple one:

“I live each day as my last… very God-fear­ing… do good and good will fol­low you…”

About Singing San­dra

Sandra Des Vignes-Millington, two-time Calypso Monarch, Singing Sandra. (Image courtesy Singing Sandra Facebook)

Born in 1957 in East Dry Riv­er, and raised in Mor­vant, her singing tal­ent was ev­i­dent from an ear­ly stage, giv­en that her grand­moth­er was the best singer in her vil­lage in To­ba­go. From an ear­ly age, she sang and act­ed as a child, and per­formed var­i­ous small pro­duc­tions named 'Best Vil­lage' pro­duc­tions.

In her mid-20s, she was ap­proached in 1984 by ca­lyp­son­ian Dr Zhiva­go to per­form two of his songs, and the fol­low­ing year was re­cruit­ed to Mighty Spar­row's Youth Brigade tent for Car­ni­val 1985.  Her ex­cep­tion­al tal­ent and per­sis­tence in hard work and in mu­sic re­sult­ed in her win­ning the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen in 1987.

From that mo­ment and af­ter, her ca­reer ac­cel­er­at­ed at an ex­po­nen­tial rate.  She went on to win the Car­ifes­ta Monarch and Ca­lyp­so Queen of the World ti­tles in 1992.  She al­so per­formed at the Reg­gae Sun­splash fes­ti­val of that year.

Lat­er, al­though she formed the group Unit­ed Sis­ters along with La­dy B, Ti­gress, and Mar­vel­lous Mar­va, she con­tin­ued to per­form as a so­lo artist and con­se­quent­ly won the 'Best Na­tion Build­ing Song' award, along with a $5,000 prize, at the 1997 car­ni­val for the song "One Des­tiny One Heart".

In 1999, Singing San­dra be­came the sec­ond woman to ever win the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion af­ter Ca­lyp­so Rose's win in 1978.  The two songs that put her in first place were ti­tled "Song for Heal­ing" and "Voic­es from the Ghet­to", songs that speak on pover­ty and racism. 

Again in 2003, Singing San­dra made his­to­ry once more to be­come the on­ly fe­male Ca­lyp­so artist to ever win the Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle twice, with "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and "An­cient Rhythm", win­ning a Hon­da Civic car and a $70,000 cash prize.  This re­peat win marked her lega­cy with­in Ca­lyp­so mu­sic and al­so helped to again bring at­ten­tion to the im­por­tance of fe­male voic­es with­in a very male dom­i­nat­ed com­pe­ti­tion and genre.