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Posted: Friday 24 October, 2014 at 3:02 PM

Remembering the Queen of Green

The late Andrea ’Queen Angie’ Walters.
By: Staff Reporter, SKNVibes.com

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE calypso community was thrown somewhat into a tailspin in April 2012 when news of the death of Singing Angie rushed through the Federation. And while there is still a struggle to deal with the loss, there are those who prefer to remember the better days and the contribution she made to the calypso artform and to their lives.

     

    The specific date was April 25, 2012 when, having awaken from sleep, persons were greeted with the sad news that a 41-year-old Andrea Walters had passed away at the Joseph N. France General Hospital earlier that morning.

     

    Queen Angie, the calypsonian

     

    Multiple calypso crown winner and founder of the Legends Tent King Socrates, recalls that Singing Angie “was a beloved member of the family of the Legends Calypso Tent, not only as a calypsonian but as a background vocalist…”

     

    He also recalls that when the National Female Calypso Competition existed, Singing Angie was a regular participant, placing as high as first runner-up on more than one occasion.

     

    She was also a constant fixture at the Green Valley Festival for several years and proved herself a force to be reckoned with when she won the Green Valley Calypso Monarch crown, which previously sat on the heads of males.

     

    She kept the momentum going from that year and in 2011, she did what no other female calypsonian had done, she won the crown for a third consecutive year.

     

    King Socrates, who has written songs for Singing Angie, remembers that he writing a song for her to defend her third crown when he received a phone call that stopped him in his tracks.

     

    “On the morning of 12th April, 2012 at approximately 5:30 am, I was on my keyboard in the process of preparing one of her songs for her attempt at winning her fourth Green Valley Calypso title. It was then that I got a call from a Legends Band member informing me that Queen Angie had passed during the night.

     

    “Queen Angie was part of the Legends Band inner circle. Her contribution has never been underestimated and her presence will always be missed.”

     

    Queen Angie’s crown retired

     

    Former Chairman of the Green Valley Festival, Douglas Wattley, in an exclusive interview with SKNVibes explained that he knew Singing Angie personally from their school days and spoke of her calibre as a calypsonian.

     

    “Albeit that I didn’t serve as Chairperson of Green Valley during the time that she contested in the Calypso Competition, I knew her personally as a student at Cayon High School and as an individual in the Lodge/Cayon community. 

     

    “So I know that she was quite a nice person, I know that she was, in respect to calypso, quite a capable individual. She was a formidable force in the competition. In an arena that is dominated usually by men, she came in and she not only held her own, she beat everybody else into second, third and fourth place…”

     

    He said for the 2012 Green Valley Festival, Queen Angie was honoured “as an integral part of the festival” and her crown had been retired and given to her family.

     

    The new crown that was used that year was dubbed the “Singing Angie Green Valley Festival Calypso Monarch Crown”.

     

    Honouring Queen Angie’s Legacy

     

    About one month after her passing, the Green Valley Festival was held and Lady Diva won the newly-named crown.

     

    She won with two pieces ‘Calypso Backstabbers’ and ‘Honour Their Legacy’, the second of which paid homage to fallen Green Valley Stalwarts Vernon Benjamin and Queen Angie.

     

    She named the fallen queen as the one who had actually inspired and urged her to enter that 2012 competition and even wore a green scarf during her performances as that, according to her, was Queen Angie’s favourite colour.

     

    The three-time Green Valley Calypso Crown winner was given the name ‘Queen of Green’ when she performed a song of that name in which she addressed the gang/colours war while exploiting the colour of green from an environmental standpoint.

     

    Queen Angie, a mother

     

    Lebron Javid ‘T-Vicious’ Walters – 24 - is the eldest of the Queen Angie’s three children (two boys and one girl) with the youngest, the girl being 19 years old.

     

    He remembers his mother as the one who took care of him and his siblings as well as their grandmother until she passed in 2009. He said even in 2012 they were still healing form that loss when news of their mother’s passing came.

     

    “I felt like dying and killing myself. Words can’t express how I felt. Sometimes I still want to cry and still I don’t want to cry but the tears just come.”

     

    His fondest memory of his mom, “her smile… I always loved her smile which could brighten up any room. She was a very joyful and had lots of friends.”

     

    She is described as “the one who kept the household together”, “the one who provided for us”, “a strong and independent woman who worked hard for what she wanted”.

     

    Her death left a void in the calypso arena and an obvious emptiness in the home which she headed.

     

    Nonetheless, as T-Vicious indicated, her children “take things one day at a time” and truly walking in her footsteps, are all involved in some form of music; the youngest is a vocalist with the Ultrasonics Band, the second is a deejay and as for T-Vicious, he says he dabbles in music “occasionally”.

     

     
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