In­nis Fran­cis

Three for­mer Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Mon­archs are among the 11 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who have se­cured places in the fi­nals of the com­pe­ti­tion at Di­manche Gras on Car­ni­val Sun­day night.

Karene As­che, Helon Fran­cis, and Chuck Gor­don (Rod­er­ick Gor­don) will be vy­ing for the ti­tle along with new­ly crowned Ca­lyp­so Queen Tamei­ka Dar­ius and Young King Snakey (Heav­en Charles).

They topped the cast of 40 semi­fi­nal­ists in Sat­ur­day’s Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta, which took place at the new­ly re­fur­bished Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, af­ter a two-year hia­tus due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

From as ear­ly as 10 am the gates opened and pa­trons trick­led in to se­cure the best van­tage points for the show which got off to a smooth start, prompt­ing MC God­frey Pierre to com­ment on the good be­hav­iour at the up­grad­ed fa­cil­i­ty. He al­so not­ed the ab­sence of toi­let pa­per and oth­er mis­siles that had been used in the past when pa­trons did not like a con­tes­tant’s choice of song.

How­ev­er, it wasn’t long be­fore the toi­let pa­per made an ap­pear­ance dur­ing the per­for­mance by Sug­ar Aloes (Michael Os­ouna). The vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian held his nerve and com­plet­ed his per­for­mance, seem­ing­ly un­per­turbed by the stream­ers of toi­let pa­per held aloft dur­ing his time on stage.

Next Sun­day, the fi­nal­ists will be vy­ing for a first prize of a mo­tor ve­hi­cle and $500,000 when the com­pe­ti­tion reach­es its cli­max at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain.

The fi­nal­ists are

Skatie (Car­los James) - De New Nor­mal

Ezekiel Yorke - Be­ing Hu­man

Du­ane Ta’za­yah O’Con­nor - Sing Hal­lelu­jah

Snakey (Heav­en Charles) -What Yuh Need Again Trin­ba­go

Karene As­che - Oa­sis

Tiny (Ker­ine Williams-Fi­garo) - To You With Love

Maria Bho­la-Paul - Peo­ple Man.

Mark East­man - Pride

Chuck Gor­don (Rod­er­ick Gor­don) - Maths eh Math­s­ing

Tamieka Dar­ius - Ja­ha­ji Bash

Re­serve: Aaron Dun­can - Moth­er of All Car­ni­vals