Socrates captures fifth National Calypso Crown

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – JUSTICE certainly reigned last evening (Dec. 30) at the LIME Senior Calypso Monarch at Carnival Village when Socrates amassed a total of 763 points and won the crown in the wee hours. 

Socrates, whose real name is Sylvester Hodge, edged out his closest competition and won the judges nod with his two songs ‘Let Justice Reign’ and ‘The Real Health Scare’. 

The first runner-up position went to King Astro, who amassed 739 points with ‘Sacrifice’ and ‘Criminals be gone’. He was followed by Singing Jackie, who placed second runner-up with 721 points and sang ‘Can’t be business as usual’ and ‘Turn your scars into stars’, while I-Soursop placed third runner-up with 700 points from his tunes ‘Living de life’ and ‘Time tell it’. 

The other competitors were Hollywood, who sang ‘Calypso Jersey’ and ‘Kitti-Nevi’, King Dis N Dat with ‘Papa’ and ‘Bail Out’, Kibi performing ‘Job Vacancy’ and ‘Job well done’ and Big Lice, who sang ‘A Search for Hope’ and ‘No Apology’. 

At the end of the night persons seemed pleased with the results after the king won the crown through his strong clarity, lyrics and stage performance. 

Socrates sang ‘The Real Health Scare’ in the first round and spoke about the silent killers of diabetes and cancer, a topic which had not been brought to the spotlight in many years and was an unexpected change from the usual social commentary or ‘socalypso’ music he sings. 

At the end of the performance he sat directly in front of Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas and said that a pact should be made between the Health Department and himself as a social commenter to help highlight the seriousness of certain diseases. 

Socrates returned to socio-political commentaries for his second performance with ‘Let Justice Reign’, which speaks to court disputes between the two major political parties in St. Kitts. 

During the song, Socrates asks the Prime Minister a question on the tip of many peoples’ tongues, ‘Why elections have not been called as yet?’ Not only does the song have strong lyrics, but the melody proved popular with the sizable crowd. 

SKNVibes spoke to the newly crowned king, who has now captured his fifth National Calypso Crown, and he said that he was pleased with the results and his performance. 

He mentioned that when he did not compete last year in the calypso competition it was because he wanted to return to the arena stronger and to recapture the crown. 

He stated that he was pleased with his songs, even though some persons did not feel that ‘The Real Health Scare’ was an appropriate song for the competition, and added that he is looking forward to competing in the Leeward Island Calypso Monarch Competition, which he first won in 2000. 

The hosts for the night were Leslie ‘Sugarbowl’ Morton and Clement ‘Juni’ Liburd. Singing Jackie was awarded the People’s Choice Award, which is a texting promotion executed by LIME and SKNVibes.com. 

She was awarded a cash prize of US $1,000 and a trophy. 

Hodge won a cash prize of EC $15,000 for capturing the LIME Senior Calypso competition.