BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NEWS coming out of neighbouring Antigua & Barbuda states that despite threat of a lawsuit and a promise to change certain lyrics, that country’s female calypsonian, Lena ‘Queen Ivena’ Phillip had continued to sing her controversial song at the Swallow Calypso Pepperpot tent.
Her calypso, entitled ‘Nastiness’, contains lyrics that accuse Prime Minister Gaston Browne of having transferred government funds to his wife’s charity – Share inc.
The Prime Minister took umbrage at that allegation and other lyrics in the song and had officially put Queen Ivena on notice that he intends to sue her.
According to the Antigua Observer Newspaper, PM Browne had also warned media houses that they would face similar action if they play the song that repeats the offending lyrics.
“She did not even spin the lie,” Browne reportedly told Observer. “She said I took $5 million of the people’s money and put it [in] my wife’s charity. Not one red cent of public funds was paid into Share and at no point [did] the charity have more than a few hundred thousand dollars in its account. She will be sent a letter of warning and if she fails to remove the lines, she will be sued.”
The media house noted that since its release, Queen Ivena’s new calypso for this year’s monarchy was featured on the airwaves throughout Antigua & Barbuda.
It however stated that PM Browne is not amused and said he has drawn the line. He went on to warn all media houses against playing the song.
He threatened: “I will sue OMG to play any song with such slanderous content along with any media that carries the defamatory lines.
“Nothing creative or funny about that type of artistry. She took 10 minutes cursing everyone in the ABLP to include the institution and you guys find that funny and entertaining. She is a nasty piece of work among other things that I can say. The rest she will see when looking in the mirror.”
In response to the threat, the calypsonian, through her lawyer Charlesworth Tabor, had reportedly said she would have changed her lyrics to avoid legal action.
But, as the first performer on stage at the Swallow Calypso Pepperpot tent, Queen Ivena had maintained her controversial lyrics she sang to loud cheers and a packed house, which was described as the largest turnout since tent city opened for the calypso competition.
In light of the ongoing saga, Antigua & Barbuda’s cultural icon Alister Thomas chalked up the reaction of politicians to scathing criticism as their just being thin-skinned.
“The sensitivity of political figures of criticism has been overbearing and we have had that experience throughout the Caribbean, and Trinidad is an example of that. I would advise anyone to go listen to any of the politically critical songs of Suga Aloes and Watchman and to evaluate how the Trinidadian politicians who are being featured and critiqued in the sharpest of way and how they react. I think there is a certain level of cultural maturity that needs to be exhibited,” the Observer quoted him as saying.
Thomas also expressed his displeasure at any attempt to muzzle the calypsonian, stating that the calypsonian should be free to mirror the concerns of the public in their art form.
“There are some public figures who don’t wish to be criticized but they will use the forum that they have to say what they wish about members of the public but when the public, through the artist, critiques or highlights them, then they react differently. But as long as the artist isn’t crossing the line then one should be advised to get the legal advice needed to defend the artist.”
He reportedly went on to warn of one of the country’s first calypsonians, Kwaco, who in the 1940s was jailed for speaking the truth about the governor of the island.
The media house also stated that two former calypso monarchs of Antigua & Barbuda, Joseph ‘Calypso Joe’ Hunte and Trevor ‘King Zacari’ King, along with Trinidad & Tobago’s legend, Edwin ‘Crazy’ Ayoung, had weighed in on the topic of defamation in calypso music and they all commented on the threat from PM Browne for what he called libellous lyrics.
“In 1993 I sang a song named ‘Paul’ and the Archbishop went to the papers saying ‘Crazy needs to go to church and he’s serving the devil’. That song became big and I got a lot of followers.
“That happened to Shorty, too. He created a Soca that offended the Prime Minister Dr. Eric Williams who kicked up against it and it got the song very big,” Crazy told the Observer.
“I want to give her a message. Tell Ivena that Crazy say to go to Prime Minister Gaston Browne and hug him up and kiss him. You know why, because he give her a big hit there. It’s either he love her or he’s insecure,” he added.
Former local Monarch, King Zacari explained why he has never been threatened with a lawsuit.
“I have a tendency to mask my lyrics. For instance I sang a song once called ‘Toon Town’ and going home one day Mr. Daniel saw me coming down the road and asked me what did I call him in my song. I told him I never called him anything. I named some characters and you can put yourself wherever you want to be.
“Usually I do my best to be metaphorical but one thing I find is that in our country we seem to be governed by grapes. We had blue grapes first, thin-skinned, red grapes now, more thin-skinned. Basically every little thing seems to touch their corn. It’s as if they are untouchable. You are in the public eye, act accordingly.”
And in his remarks to the Antigua Observer Newspaper, Calypso Joe said: “I made a pledge during my career that if I’m not going to say anything good about you then I’m not going to say anything about you at all.
“Sometimes you have the information to write thing about them but you can’t mask it properly so you just forget about it. I’m not a legal mind but having listened to the song, I see its actually referring to a speech made by the Prime Minister and I don’t believe a man can be libellous for that. I’m repeating something that an official said in an official document in a public place.”
