BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Queen of Green, Singing Angie, has once again captured the Green Valley crown, when she out-performed her competitors last evening (May 22) with ‘Thanks’ and ‘Heaven Knows’ at the Senior Calypso competition.
Singing Angie, whose real name is Andrea Walters, amassed a total of 785 points while First Runner-up position went to ‘Copperhead’ who was awarded 657 points for singing ‘Bring the standard back up’ and ‘Sweetest Pork’.
In the Second Runner-up position was Sacka with 620 points. He sang ‘Coming Down Again’ and ‘Father Help Us’, while female calypsonian Sha-Angel placed Third Runner-up with 580 points and sang ‘We Can’t Let Green Valley Go to Waste’ and ‘Green Valley time again’.
Singing Angie, who is also the reigning ‘Best of the Rest’ Monarch, said she was pleased with her win and was looking forward to competing in the National Carnival later this year.
Her performance in both rounds showed that she was the most experienced calypsonian on show, as she displayed confidence and utilised the stage to its fullest.
In her first song ‘Thanks’, she paid tribute to the Festival Committee singing where would the festival be without. She also mentioned the names of some persons who were instrumental in the festival, including Creighton Pencheon, Sheila Morris and Brenda Burroughs.
In her second song ‘Heaven Knows’, she displayed a placard onstage that stated if anyone remembered ‘Robbie’, Green Valley’s cleaner, who was gunned down in his yard and no arrests have been made in his murder.
Although the show could be said to have been a good one, the turnout was poor when compared with past years. It started close to 10:00 p.m.
Vernon Benjamin, who has been the Green Valley Chairman since 2000, said next year would be his last in that position when the festival would be celebrating its 15th anniversary.
“We have already started doing promotions for next year in New York and Miami that will help with the turnout. Next year will be my last, so I want to leave with a bang…nobody is gonna want to miss next year,” he said.
He said they would also advertise the festival in Caribbean countries, where persons from the Green Valley community are also residing. These countries include USVI, St. Maarten and Anguilla.
“We will also be advertising online to get persons from all over to come to Green Valley next year, and I already have a committee looking at the programme for next year,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin, who has been on the Green Valley Committee since its inception, said they would also look at new initiatives to make the festival better.
Creighton Pencheon was the first Chairman of the festival; from 1997-1999. This year, Carib Breweries came onboard as sponsors and the festival also partnered with the St. Kitts Music Festival’s
Promotions Committee for the opening night of the annual event.The other calypsonians that competed in the competition were The Mighty Flosser, Mr. Various, Mighty Tallal, Mighty Piggy and Scratcher.
According to Chairman Benjamin, former Green Valley King, Bra Bread, was thrown out of the competition for breaking the rules with his second song, ‘That was your choice’.
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