Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley was among those ap­plaud­ing pan­nist Joshua Re­grel­lo on his feat of play­ing the steel­pan for 31 hours yes­ter­day.

In a state­ment post­ed on Face­book af­ter Re­grel­lo’s his­toric per­for­mance at WACK 90.1 FM’s stu­dio in San Fer­nan­do, Row­ley con­grat­u­lat­ed him on be­half of the Gov­ern­ment, call­ing the feat “as­ton­ish­ing.”

“Your ded­i­ca­tion, per­se­ver­ance, and pas­sion for our na­tion­al in­stru­ment have been and con­tin­ue to be tru­ly in­spir­ing. You have cre­at­ed his­to­ry and, more so, unit­ed our coun­try and the di­as­po­ra dur­ing this hol­i­day sea­son. You have filled a na­tion with pride, and I am sure that the pi­o­neers of the steel­pan, both past and present, are tremen­dous­ly proud of you,” he said.

Row­ley said Re­grel­lo’s re­mark­able ef­fort un­der­scored his com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence while shin­ing a glob­al spot­light on T&T’s rich cul­tur­al her­itage. He de­scribed the steel­pan as a sym­bol of the na­tion’s cre­ativ­i­ty, re­silience, and en­dur­ing spir­it, el­e­vat­ed to new glob­al heights by Re­grel­lo’s ac­com­plish­ment.

“This feat is a tes­ta­ment to the pow­er of mu­sic to unite, up­lift, and in­spire. You have made us all im­mense­ly proud, and your achieve­ment will un­doubt­ed­ly serve as an in­spi­ra­tion to fu­ture gen­er­a­tions of mu­si­cians and artists, both here and around the world,” Row­ley said.

The Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) Women’s League al­so ex­tend­ed con­grat­u­la­tions, hail­ing Re­grel­lo’s mile­stone as an ex­tra­or­di­nary show­case of tal­ent and de­ter­mi­na­tion.

“Joshua’s artistry and re­silience are a uni­fy­ing mo­ment for our coun­try, in­spir­ing hope and joy,” the League not­ed, prais­ing him as an ex­am­ple of the trans­for­ma­tive pow­er of pas­sion, per­se­ver­ance, and dis­ci­pline.

The League em­pha­sised the cru­cial role of the fam­i­ly in Re­grel­lo’s suc­cess, ac­knowl­edg­ing his moth­er’s un­wa­ver­ing care and his fa­ther Ju­nia Re­grel­lo’s lega­cy of lead­er­ship.

That sen­ti­ment was echoed by To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine, who said, “Joshua, you set out on a chal­lenge and you ac­com­plished it. The Of­fice of the Chief Sec­re­tary and all of To­ba­go are proud of you. You are now a Guin­ness World Record hold­er. Fan­tas­tic job.”

Pan Trin­ba­go joined the cel­e­bra­tions, ac­knowl­edg­ing Re­grel­lo’s at­tempt at two Guin­ness World Records—the Longest Marathon Play­ing Steel­pan and the Longest Marathon Play­ing a Chrome Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment.

The state­ment from the steel­band body de­clared that Re­grel­lo’s name is etched in his­to­ry, show­cas­ing the mag­ic of T&T’s na­tion­al trea­sure to the world.

“This is not just a win for Joshua but a tri­umph for our cul­ture, our her­itage, and our glob­al Steel­pan fam­i­ly,” said Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore.

She de­scribed his pas­sion, re­silience, and un­yield­ing de­ter­mi­na­tion as a bea­con of cre­ativ­i­ty and ex­cel­lence.

“This trans­for­ma­tion­al achieve­ment so­lid­i­fies the steel­pan’s sta­tus as a glob­al sym­bol of in­no­va­tion and pride. It is a source of im­mense pride for all of Trinidad and To­ba­go, a na­tion cel­e­brat­ed as the Mec­ca of Steel­pan,” Ram­sey-Moore said.