Min­is­ter of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, Ran­dall Mitchell, has paid trib­ute to Su­san Maicoo, de­scrib­ing her as one of the most icon­ic fig­ures in this coun­try’s so­ca parang are­na.

Maicoo, known for her hit song Tri­ni Christ­mas, died at the age of 62 on Sun­day af­ter be­ing ad­mit­ted to hos­pi­tal.

She had been ail­ing since Feb­ru­ary. She was be­ing treat­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal and had been dis­charged on March 14.

Yes­ter­day, Min­is­ter Mitchell ex­tend­ed con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly, friends and loved ones of Maicoo.

In the state­ment, he said Maicoo, who hailed from Fyz­abad, was a re­tired teacher of Union Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry School, Siparia, and a lo­cal parang “can­tante.”

In 1988, she re­leased one of her great­est hits, Tri­ni Christ­mas, which tells a tale of what makes T&T Christ­mas “the best”—the food, drinks and fes­tiv­i­ties.

The Cul­ture Min­is­ter said Maicoo was fa­mous for her oth­er hit parang songs such as, We Come Out To Dance and Daisy Gone, her time­less trib­ute to the late queen of parang Daisy Voisin.

Min­is­ter Mitchell said Maicoo’s “voice and songs, have be­come an ir­re­place­able part of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s Christ­mas cel­e­bra­tions and tra­di­tions as well as its cul­tur­al and mu­si­cal land­scape.”

He added that T&T owed a debt of grat­i­tude to Maicoo, not on­ly for the Tri­ni Christ­mas hit but for her con­tri­bu­tion to so­ca parang.

“She was one of the most icon­ic fig­ures in the so­ca parang are­na. Her stel­lar con­tri­bu­tion to the growth and de­vel­op­ment of the genre and to the cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go is im­mea­sur­able. Mrs Maicoo’s years of work as an ed­u­ca­tor, men­tor and per­former have un­doubt­ed­ly shaped the lives of many and will con­tin­ue to do so for years to come.

“We will al­ways be grate­ful for her in­deli­ble con­tri­bu­tions in ce­ment­ing Tri­ni Christ­mas as the best and for weav­ing so­ca parang in­to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s mu­si­cal lega­cy,” Mitchell said.