Denyse Plum­mer, a for­mer pop singer who switched to ca­lyp­so and lat­er gospel in a mu­si­cal ca­reer that spanned more than five decades, died Sun­day at age 69.

Her death was con­firmed to Guardian Me­dia by a close fam­i­ly mem­ber.

She had been ail­ing for sev­er­al months af­ter be­ing di­ag­nosed with can­cer.

Plum­mer is best known for the hos­tile re­cep­tion she re­ceived from a jeer­ing, toi­let-pa­per-wield­ing Skin­ner Park crowd when she made her ca­lyp­so de­but there in 1986.

Al­though she was pelt­ed mer­ci­less­ly through­out the per­for­mance, Plum­mer valiant­ly stood her ground and went on to achieve many suc­cess­es in the ca­lyp­so are­na.

Her mu­si­cal jour­ney be­gan as a child when she won Best Vo­cal­ist in the Ju­nior and Se­nior cat­e­gories at T&T Mu­sic Fes­ti­vals. She was al­so ac­tive in the ju­nior, se­nior and folk choirs at her al­ma mater, Holy Name Con­vent.

Plum­mer al­so took part in pop­u­lar tele­vi­sion tal­ent com­pe­ti­tions, "12 and Un­der," "Teen Tal­ent," and "Scout­ing for Tal­ent."

How­ev­er, it was as a pop singer at lo­cal bars and ho­tels that she first gained pop­u­lar­i­ty, which even­tu­al­ly led to her land­ing a reg­u­lar gig at the Cha­co­nia Inn in Mar­aval.

Her reper­toire in­clud­ed pop, reg­gae, and coun­try and west­ern songs.

In 1978, Plum­mer re­leased her first pop al­bum, "Nat­ur­al."

Denyse Plummer

She switched to ca­lyp­so in 1986 when leg­endary Phase II Pan Groove steel­band arranger Len "Boogsie" Sharpe en­list­ed her to sing the band's Panora­ma song, Pan Ris­ing.

She faced hos­til­i­ty from au­di­ences, many of whom ques­tioned the abil­i­ty of a fair-skinned mixed-race fe­male pop artiste to sing ca­lyp­so. She soon erased all doubts about her tal­ent.

Plum­mer over­came that rough start in ca­lyp­so and steadi­ly gained pop­u­lar­i­ty, col­lab­o­rat­ing with Boogsie again in 1987 on Pan Progress and This Feel­ing Nice.

How­ev­er, her break­through year was in 1988, with yet an­oth­er Len "Boogsie" Sharpe com­po­si­tion, Woman Is Boss, which pro­pelled her in­to the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nals and her first Ca­lyp­so Queen crown.

By that time, she was one of the stars at the Ca­lyp­so Re­vue, the tent found­ed by the late Lord Kitch­en­er.

Plum­mer won the Ca­lyp­so Queen ti­tle a to­tal of six times and placed sec­ond in that com­pe­ti­tion three times.

Her most suc­cess­ful year in ca­lyp­so was 2001 when she won the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle with He­roes and Nah Leav­ing.

She was among the five fe­male ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to win the Young Kings and Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queens ti­tles.

For her con­tri­bu­tions to cul­ture, Plum­mer was award­ed the Hum­ming Bird Medal (Gold) in 2011.

FLASHBACK: Former calypso Queen Denyse Plummer during her Thankful Concert at Queen's Hall St Ann's, Port-of-Spain, back in May. Plummer died on Sunday.

KERWIN PIERRE

She made an­oth­er ca­reer-chang­ing move in 2015, be­com­ing a born-again Chris­t­ian and join­ing World Out­reach Min­istries Church in Pe­tit Val­ley, pa­s­tored by Carl Mead.

She had been in­vit­ed to at­tend ser­vices there by her hair­dress­er.

Lat­er that year, Plum­mer re­leased her au­to­bi­og­ra­phy, The Crossover.

Un­til ill health forced her to stop per­form­ing, Plum­mer had been ac­tive on the gospel cir­cuit. Her re­leas­es in that genre in­clude High­est Praise and Safe on The In­side, a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Michelle Sylvester, Christo­pher "Tam­bu" Her­bert and Lu­ta (Morel Pe­ters). In 2019, she remixed her 2001 ca­lyp­so hit Nah Leav­ing in­to a praise and wor­ship num­ber. Cyah Leave Him, reaf­firm­ing her com­mit­ment to the Gospel.

Plum­mer is sur­vived by her hus­band, Patrick Boocock, and their two sons.