BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – ELEVEN finalists have been named to compete against reigning Monarch Kurt Allen for the crown in the 2011 Trinidad National Calypso Monarch Competition slated for Sunday (Mar. 6) at the Queen’s Park Savannah.
Brian London, Devon Seales, Dexter ‘Stinger’ Parsons, Dr. Hollis ‘Chalkdust’ Liverpool, Joanne ‘Tigress’ Rowley, Karene Asche, Kizzy Ruiz, Michael ‘Sugar Aloes’ Orsuna, Rodney ‘Benjai’ Le Blanc, Tamika Darius and Weston ‘Cro Cro’ Rawlins are the calypsonians chosen from a field of 40 semi-finalists.
This highly-anticipated competition is comprised of three former kings - Chalkdust, Sugar Aloes and Cro Cro - who all have several wins under their belt.
Meanwhile, Benjai is the only newcomer to have made it to the finals. He is also the recently-crowned Young King Calypso Monarch which was held on February 21 and a finalist in the Soca Groovy Monarch show to be held tomorrow night (Mar. 4).
Last year, the contenders each sang one song which saw Kurt Allen taking the crown with ‘Too Bright’. This year, however, the competition will see the finalists performing two songs as were done in the past.
The preliminaries saw a record of 450 participants trying to get their hands on the TT$2M up for grabs. This competition is described as one of the stiffest because of the increased prize money.
