The Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) is con­grat­u­lat­ing Olatun­ji Year­wood on his re­cent per­for­mance as a con­tes­tant in the wide­ly ac­claimed “X Fac­tor” tal­ent show in the Unit­ed King­dom.

"For us at TU­CO, Olatun­ji has been a suc­cess sto­ry since he cap­tured the “Groovy So­ca” Ti­tle in 2015 at the In­ter­na­tion­al So­ca Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion with the song “Ola”. His suc­cess in that in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion marked the note of tran­si­tion for a young artiste from the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so ex­pe­ri­ence to adult­hood," TU­CO said in a state­ment is­sued Tues­day.

TU­CO said it has tak­en note of his moves, not on­ly on stage, but from the youth com­pe­ti­tions are­na, to front­line singer with then Roy Cape and the All Stars and oth­er bands.

It said it has ob­served his pref­er­ence for mu­si­cal pro­duc­tions which can be eas­i­ly dis­tin­guished in the midst of the usu­al Car­ni­val of­fer­ings, which tend to sound the same.

"Thus the song track “Body­line” could eas­i­ly stand out in any menu of mu­sic on the world stage. The same could be said for tracks like “Bang Bang”, “Oh Yay” and “Win­ing Good”. More than the mu­sic, though, Ola’s stage pres­ence and the­atri­cal abil­i­ty brings a dis­tinc­tive feel to his stage per­for­mance," TU­CO said.

TU­CO added: "Like so many Ca­lyp­so and So­ca mu­sic lovers have known for quite some time now that Olatun­ji Year­wood is a pro­fes­sion­al artiste. We cer­tain­ly were not wait­ing for Si­mon Cow­ell and the oth­er judges of “X Fac­tor” to val­i­date the pow­er of Ola. We are cer­tain Ola him­self knows this."

TU­CO said that what is im­por­tant though, is that in spite of his rel­a­tive suc­cess in the Car­ni­val di­as­po­ra, Olatun­ji saw it fit to se­cure new paths for­ward on his jour­ney to pro­mote the mu­sic he has ded­i­cat­ed his life to – Ca­lyp­so and So­ca from the Caribbean “Trinidad and To­ba­go to be ex­act”.

It says that in do­ing so, he would have gam­bled with the gloss and the in­tegri­ty of his per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al rep­u­ta­tion.

"He was stead­fast and strong and he stared in­to the lights of the world and stat­ed his mis­sion. In­deed we are tru­ly proud of his per­for­mance and his achieve­ment is way be­yond “X Fac­tor”. May his suc­cess re­dound to a greater recog­ni­tion of his artis­tic worth and open the gates for oth­er young en­ter­tain­ers in Ca­lyp­so and So­ca who may be as am­bi­tions and ad­ven­tur­ous," TU­CO said.

TU­CO notes that the Unit­ed King­dom and Eu­rope will con­tin­ue to present great op­por­tu­ni­ties for our en­ter­tain­ers in tal­ent shows, mu­sic trade shows, clubs and mu­sic fes­ti­vals.

It said that from the Ed­in­burg Fes­ti­val to Wom­ex, from the “X Fac­tor” to MI­DEM, the pos­si­bil­i­ties are end­less.

"But they are all be­yond the Car­ni­val bound­ary and lo­cat­ed in rel­a­tive­ly new cul­tur­al ter­ri­to­ry and our home grown stars have to be ready to make that sac­ri­fice to make their own state­ment in the world of mu­sic," TU­CO added.