BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE LEGACY of the late Singing Angie will live on, especially now that the Green Valley Senior Monarch Calypso Crown has been named in her honour.
The commemoration took place last evening (May 26) at the Sand Box, Cayon, during the Green Valley Senior Kaiso competition.
And before a fair-sized crowd, President of the Green Valley Committee, Douglas Wattley, officially renamed the crown, declaring it the “Singing Angie Green Valley Festival Calypso Monarch Crown”.
Singing Angie was the first female to win the senior calypso monarch competition – a 2009 feat – and was also the first individual to win the crown three times in a row, 2009-2011.
Wattley explained to SKNVibes that this is part of the reason why the Green Valley Committee felt it was necessary to honour her in this fashion.
“It was an easy decision because we wanted to recognise Angie in a permanent way. To name the crown after her suggests that for as long as Green Valley is an event, her name would be raised and her name would be remembered.
“Also it was an easy decision because not only was Angie the first female Calypso Monarch in Green Valley, she was the first calypsonian to win three consecutive crowns. And that kind of achievement demands that we find some way to recognise her contribution to Green Valley. It is unfortunate that we had to do it after her passing. But I think that that’s a good way to ensure and enshrine her legacy in our memories.”
Interestingly, the very evening that the crown was officially renamed, the only female calypsonian in the Green Valley Senior Kaiso Competition 2012 – Lady Diva – was successful in capturing the crown.
She – according to the judges – outsang and outperformed her seven male competitors.
Asked his thoughts Lady Diva’s accomplishment, Wattley described it as “amazing” and a “good thing”.
“If you notice, even on the larger scale, women calypsonians – because they tend to be better singers – are now coming into the calypso arena and creating a name for themselves. So you find women who ordinarily would have been singing other types of songs, are recognising that they too can go on the sage and perform calypso and are making it a lot more difficult for men to beat them.
“At the very least, men will soon have to recognise that they will have to elevate their own game to keep up. And so the standards in general should rise. I think it was amazing and a good thing that this year, in recognition of Singing Angie, that the first person to win her crown was a woman.”
