BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – UNDER a clear evening sky and before dozens of calypso fans from across the island, Lady Diva – the only female in the 2012 Green Valley Calypso Monarch competition – won herself the “Singing Angie Green Valley Festival Calypso Monarch Crown”.
The competition was intense and keenly contested indeed, with a total of eight vying for the crown. And the different clusters of people populating the Sand Box had expressed among themselves varying views on who would win the coveted crown.
Jungle Lion performed “Tell Me Why” and “De Contractor” in the first and second rounds respectively, Tallal performed “You’ve Got Mail” and “Block Party”, “Tribute to Vernon Benjamin and “The Territory” were Godfrey’s two selections, Watch U Back rendered “Sweet Sixteen” and “I am Back” and Bra-Bread’s selections were “HIV AIDS” and “Where Do We Go From Here”.
Calypsonian History sang “Make De Valley a Model” in the first round and “What’s Going on” in the second, with the animated Babbu performing “Green Valley Moving On” and his popular crowd-pleasing tune “Bruck It Dung”.
Lady Diva’s first round performance of “Honour Their Legacy”, featured two fallen Green Valley stalwarts, Vernon Benjamin and Singing Angie. She said it was an excellent move to honour Singing Angie through the renaming of the calypso monarch crown but suggested that to honour Benjamin, the Sand Box should be renamed the Vernon Benjamin Complex.
And in her second piece “Calypso Backstabbers”, she said in an era where more focus is placed on other genres of music, she will do her part to keep calypso, a central part of our culture, alive.
So close was the competition that she won by only a four-point margin with a total of 739 points. Bra-Bread – nabbing the First Runner Up position - accumulated a total of 735 points with Godfrey placing Second Runner Up with a 690 score.
With 649 points, History won the Third Runner Up position and Tallal won the $100-award for Most Co-operative Calypsonian.
With the Singing Angie Green Valley Festival Calypso Monarch Crown aptly placed on her head, Lady Diva – a professed good friend of the fallen calypso monarch, Singing Angie – said although she was shocked by the competition’s result, she is pleased because her hard work paid off.
“That was definitely a shock because I am the underdog. I was the only female in the calypso show so I wasn’t expecting to win the crown. But I worked hard… It was challenging because I have a fulltime job and I had to practice in the evenings until late and I went into the competition late so it was really pushing it.”
She competed for the first time in the 2011 National Calypso competition and made it to the semi-finals but said her inspiration to enter the 2012 Green Valley Calypso Competition came from Singing Angie.
“She was the one who actually pushed me into singing in this competition so I’m glad that wherever she is, I made her proud. That green scarf you saw me singing with, I wore it because green was Angie’s favourite colour…”
Lady Diva is the first individual to win the crown under its new name, the “Singing Angie Green Valley Festival Calypso Monarch Crown”.
The event was hosted by ‘Cutter’ with some assistance from Altonia Springer and musical accompaniment was provided by the Grand Masters Band. Guest artiste was “Sing Stupidness” calypsonian, Mighty Honesty.
