Rhon­dor Dowlat

Guardian Me­dia’s sport jour­nal­ist Cas­ton Cu­pid is among 40 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who have made it to the se­mi-fi­nals of this year’s Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CU) Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion.

The semis will be held at the new Skin­ner Park in San Fer­nan­do on Sat­ur­day from 1 pm.

Cu­pid has made a name for him­self in Tu­co’s To­ba­go com­pe­ti­tion over the years but is now rel­ish­ing his chance to per­form for the Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta crowd.

Ad­dress­ing his achieve­ment yes­ter­day at TU­CO re­leased the names of the 40 se­mi-fi­al­ists, Cu­pid, whose ca­lyp­so is ti­tled The saga of truth, said as a young man, he feels ho­n­oured and ex­cit­ed to per­form at Skin­ner Park.

“I feel proud. It’s some­thing I’ve been work­ing on for a num­ber of years. Ca­lyp­so is some­thing I re­al­ly love,” Cu­pid said.

“This will be my sec­ond time in Skin­ner Park, first time was in 2020 when it was held in Guaracara Park. It’s some­thing I worked hard for. My aim is to make it to Di­manche Gras and win.”

He as­sured that for the se­mi-fi­nals, he is go­ing to give his all, not just for him­self and his sup­port­ers, but al­so for the com­pos­er of the ca­lyp­so, Sher­win Cun­ning­ham, who died last year.

“Ex­pect a very hard-hit­ting per­for­mance. It means a lot to me be­cause it is the last song my writer wrote for me, so it is a song close to my heart and I know he would have been proud to see that I make Skin­ner Park and bet­ter if I go on to Di­manche Gras.”

Al­so mak­ing it to the se­mi-fi­nals is pris­on­er Romel Leza­ma.

Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons De­op­er­sad Ra­moutar and the en­tire Prison Ser­vice con­grat­u­lat­ed Leza­ma on his achieve­ment of be­com­ing the first pris­on­er to qual­i­fy for a Ca­lyp­so Monarch se­mi-fi­nal.

In a re­lease, Ra­moutar said he was ex­ceed­ing­ly pleased, as it meant the re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive mea­sures in place are steadi­ly veer­ing to­wards re­al­i­sa­tion.

He has praised all mem­bers of staff whose ded­i­ca­tion and trust in the process of restora­tion and rein­te­gra­tion con­tin­ue to suc­cess­ful­ly pro­pel the Prison Ser­vice and those un­der its care.

Leza­ma is a high­ly ac­com­plished box­er who is a mem­ber of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Am­a­teur Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion and stands out in his di­vi­sion.

He said through the sport of box­ing, he was able to har­ness his thoughts and emo­tions and chan­nel them in a pos­i­tive di­rec­tion. A mul­ti-skilled in­di­vid­ual, he is al­so a drum­mer and plays all sports avail­able at the Youth Train­ing and Re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion Cen­tre.

Leza­ma, one of four charges judged in the pre­lim­i­nary round of the com­pe­ti­tion, goes up against 39 com­peti­tors with his ca­lyp­so ti­tled “Walls of Ren­o­va­tion.”

Se­mi-fi­nal­ists

Aaron Dun­can

Ad­de­lon “Ban­jela” Brave­boy

Arnold “Jaw D” Jor­dan

Bethany Light­bourne

Car­los “Skatie” James

Cas­ton Cu­pid

Curlis­sa Charles Mapp

Dex­ter “The Stinger” Par­sons

Don­ald Du­ane O’Con­nor

Du­ane Tazyah O’Con­nor

Eu­nice Pe­ters

Ezekiel Yorke

Garth St Clair

Heav­en “Snakey” Charles

Helon Fran­cis

Hol­lis “Chalk­dust” Liv­er­pool

Jan­nelle “Jay Soul” Win­ches­ter-Moore

Karene As­che

Ker­ine Williams-Fi­garo,

Kevin Dodds

Kurt “The Last Bard John of Ca­lyp­so” Allen

Lester “John Oh Cool” Sa­landy

Maria Bho­la

Mark East­man

Mi­cal “Mi­cal Te­ja” Williams

Michael “Sug­ar Aloes” Os­ouna

My­ron “Ca­lyp­so Nite” Bruce

Nicholas Lu­cas

Nicole Thomas

Olatun­ji Year­wood

Phillip “Black Sage” Mur­ray

Ri­val­do Lon­don

Rod­er­ick “Chucky” Gor­don

Romel Leza­ma

Sasha-Ann Moses

Sean “De Psalmist” Daniel

Stephen Mar­celle

Tamei­ka Dar­ius

Vic­to­ria “Queen Vic­to­ria” Coop­er-Rahim

Vi­vian “Young Pos­er” Lock­hart

(Re­serve) Alana “La­dy Watch­man” Sin­nette-Khan