SHAL­IZA HAS­SANALI

A new rule en­forced by the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) which dis­al­lows ca­lyp­so­ni­ans from singing a new ren­di­tion in the fi­nals of the Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion is not sit­ting well with four vet­er­an ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who see the move as a way to “muz­zle and sti­fle” their free­dom of speech and force the old heads out of the in­dus­try.

Yes­ter­day, ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Hol­lis “Chalk­dust” Liv­er­pool, Er­ic “Pink Pan­ther” Tay­lor, Car­los “Skatie” James and Michael “Sug­ar Aloes” Os­una were up in arms with TU­CO’s 2020 di­rec­tive that ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who ad­vanced to the fi­nals of the com­pe­ti­tion on Di­manche Gras night must not de­vi­ate from the songs they sang in the pre­lim­i­nary round at var­i­ous tents ear­li­er this month.

This meant that ca­lyp­so­ni­ans would not be al­lowed to de­liv­er a new ca­lyp­so on the big stage, as was done in the past.

This led to Aloes, Skatie and Pink Pan­ther of Ka­lyp­so Re­vue not of­fer­ing them­selves to be judged this year.

An­gered by the move, Aloes called on all ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to boy­cott the Ca­lyp­so Monarch.

Chalk­dust be­lieves the new rul­ing was an or­ches­trat­ed plot to get the “old heads out” of the in­dus­try.

“They (TU­CO) are say­ing that ca­lyp­so­ni­ans can come with a new song that might be too li­bel­lous and can be a cour­t­house mat­ter and they could be in trou­ble be­cause they could be charged be­cause they run the show. That is their ex­cuse for it,” Chalk­dust said.

He said a good com­pos­er would be able to de­tect li­bel so TU­CO’s ar­gu­ment was base­less.

“I think it is a way to muz­zle ca­lyp­so­ni­ans. That is de­stroy­ing the cre­ativ­i­ty of ca­lyp­so­ni­ans. That is the art form where peo­ple can come out late and hear a new song. They are throw­ing out the ba­by with the bath­wa­ter.”

The nine-time Ca­lyp­so Monarch champ won­dered who in “TU­CO came up with that fool­ish idea. The en­tire Caribbean is laugh­ing at us.”

Cus­tom­ary for de­liv­er­ing new songs in the fi­nals, Chalk­dust said if he want­ed to sing about a break­ing de­vel­op­ment on stage he could not.

“If some­thing new hap­pens with the coro­n­avirus or we want­ed to sing about the mur­ders we cant sing it. I feel chained be­cause this is the first time this has hap­pened in the 53 years I have been singing. I am dis­ap­point­ed.”

Pink Pan­ther said TU­CO’s de­ci­sion was tak­en at a meet­ing last year among its mem­bers.

“The mem­ber­ship de­cid­ed that but I don’t have to agree with it. I just don’t like their rules. That is against the spir­it of ca­lyp­so.”

He too agreed that ca­lyp­so­ni­ans were be­ing muz­zled and sti­fled.

“It is not a way to muz­zle...it muz­zling you be­cause you can­not be con­tem­po­rary. If some­thing ma­jor hap­pens be­fore the fi­nals you can­not sing about it. The way they moved there they have some plan afoot. I am watch­ing with an ea­gle eye. What dri­ves you to say that ca­lyp­so­ni­ans must not sing a new song in the fi­nal?”

A fu­ri­ous Aloes said TU­CO was do­ing every­thing to si­lence their free­dom of speech.

“I hope ca­lyp­so­ni­ans would have the gump­tion to leave this blast­ed com­pe­ti­tion alone. I hope these ca­lyp­so­ni­ans boy­cott the com­pe­ti­tion. The whole flip­ping sys­tem cor­rupt,” Aloes said.

Skatie said TU­CO has to get its act to­geth­er.

He said the re­sults of the com­pe­ti­tion has al­ways been shroud­ed in se­cre­cy.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, TU­CO’s pres­i­dent Lu­ta­lo “Broth­er Re­sis­tance,” Masim­ba said TU­CO had not re­ceived an of­fi­cial com­plaint from ca­lyp­so­ni­ans on the mat­ter.

“Reg­is­tra­tion for the com­pe­ti­tion opened since De­cem­ber and as far as I know every­thing is stat­ed clear­ly in the rules and every­body who com­pet­ed in the pre­lim­i­nary round would have signed an agree­ment as hav­ing read and un­der­stood the rules,” Masim­ba said.