Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

De­fend­ing cham­pi­on Nicole Thomas Clarke be­came the voice for To­ba­go on Tues­day, as she made an un­flinch­ing de­mand for the is­land to be shown re­spect.

The vet­er­an artiste was loud­ly ap­plaud­ed by hun­dreds of fans, who got out of their seats to cheer as she earned a third con­sec­u­tive To­ba­go Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle at Car­ni­val City, Mar­ket Square, Scar­bor­ough.

Thomas Clarke, who earned 282 points, de­feat­ed nine oth­er fi­nal­ists for the crown and $100,000 first prize.

Her song, ti­tled Re­spect, ex­plored the frus­tra­tions faced by To­bag­o­ni­ans due to the ab­sence of au­ton­o­my.

Ad­dress­ing the ab­sence of ma­jor ser­vices pro­vid­ed on the is­land, she warned there is a po­lit­i­cal price to pay if it con­tin­ues to be ig­nored.

She called on To­bag­o­ni­ans to re­ject be­ing treat­ed as a child and sim­ply a tourist des­ti­na­tion.

“Yuh look­ing for a place to take your whole fam­i­ly, she good for that.

“Sit back, re­lax, soak in the sand and sea; well, she could han­dle that.

“But when big de­ci­sions must be made, To­ba­go cyah make the grade.

“Yuh want a pass­port and visa bad, why we have to take a trip down to Trinidad? This is T&T last time I checked. Put some re­spect.”

Run­ner-up Wendy Gar­rick made an im­pas­sioned plea for the pro­tec­tion of the en­vi­ron­ment in her song, Bor­rowed Time.

She warned that re­cent dev­as­tat­ing flood­ing in Nepal was an omi­nous sign that must not be ig­nored.

She cau­tioned the au­di­ence about think­ing T&T is im­mune to the ef­fects of glob­al warm­ing, not­ing that ground ze­ro for the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic was in Chi­na, but quick­ly spread to all parts of the world.

Gar­rick earned 259 points and re­ceived $75,000.

The dis­ap­pear­ance of two-year-old An­ge­lo To­bias Plaza from Good­wood in May was al­so ad­dressed by many ca­lyp­so­ni­ans, who chal­lenged the pub­lic on its role in the safe­ty of chil­dren.

Stephanie Joseph’s pore-rais­ing ren­di­tion of Fix It left sev­er­al pa­trons dis­cussing the case that has gripped the na­tion. The tod­dler’s step­fa­ther, Shan­non Miller, has been charged with the child’s mur­der.

Joseph sang, “The po­lice, Coast Guard and res­cue teams, they search the land and search the sea.

“Where is the jus­tice and hu­man­i­ty, but, most of all, where is this ba­by?

“Meh bel­ly burn­ing me, be­cause we need to fix this.

“And now the whole Trin­ba­go want to know, where the hell is ba­by An­ge­lo.”

Joseph placed fourth while Shervell Williams (All Hands on Deck) was third.

Guest per­former Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters praised the fi­nal­ists for the qual­i­ty of ca­lyp­soes as he not­ed the fu­ture of the art form is in good hands.