Tremaine So­ca Warn­er

Marq Pierre of the San­gre Grande Ed­u­ca­tion­al In­sti­tute walked away with the crown and brag­ging rights af­ter de­thron­ing three-time Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch Aaron Dun­can.The fi­nals of the com­pe­ti­tion took place yes­ter­day at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah and in­clud­ed 16 con­tes­tants from through­out T&T.

Pierre was a crowd favourite from the mo­ment he took the sa­van­nah stage in a black jeep with heav­i­ly-tint­ed win­dows and ac­com­pa­nied by his se­cu­ri­ty de­tail. The 16-year-old singer then emerged from the jeep and an an­nounce­ment was made that Pierre, the prime min­is­ter of T&T, had ar­rived.

Pierre, a Form Five stu­dent, then de­liv­ered a con­fi­dent ren­di­tion of his song What If We Knew? In the song, Pierre told lis­ten­ers if they recog­nised the skills and gifts they pos­sessed and per­sist­ed de­spite life's ob­sta­cles, they would re­alise their dreams.Speak­ing to the T&T Guardian short­ly af­ter his per­for­mance, Pierre said he thought his chances of win­ning the com­pe­ti­tion were "very good." The song was writ­ten by his moth­er Chevan­nise Parks, who said her son had giv­en a "ster­ling per­for­mance.

Plac­ing sec­ond was Sharis­sa Came­jo of Sa­cred Heart Girls' RC School with her song Ah Sup­port­ing Meh Coun­try, which pro­mot­ed pa­tri­o­tism and called on cit­i­zens to build the na­tion.

New Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch

In third place was Sher­vonne N'Ko­la Rod­ney of El Do­ra­do West Sec­ondary with Beat That. Dressed in a colour­ful school uni­form, Rod­ney crit­i­cised school bul­lies and urged stu­dents that if De­spite loud cheers for Dun­can at the be­gin­ning of his per­for­mance, the Stan­dard Three stu­dent man­aged to place on­ly sixth.

Dun­can has won the crown for the last three years. Guest per­form­ers in­clud­ed 11-year-old ca­lyp­son­ian from New York De­vyn Tyson and Bar­ba­dos Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2013 Aisha Butch­er. The com­pe­ti­tion is or­gan­ised by the Trin­ba­go Un­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion.