Rhon­da Krys­tal Ram­bal­ly

To­day, the Sun­dar Popo Mon­u­ment Com­mit­tee will host a con­cert fea­tur­ing some of the top guns in the chut­ney in­dus­try to pay trib­ute to the cul­tur­al icon.

Popo died in May, 2000, of heart fail­ure af­ter a mo­men­tous con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of so­ca/chut­ney mu­sic lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly. He rose to promi­nence with his hit Nana and Nani in 1970 and record­ed some 400 songs over three decades. Some of his well-known songs are Pholourie Bi­na Chata­nee, Scor­pi­on Sting Mih, Moth­er's Love, Suragie My Dar­ling, Chad­dar Bechaw Bal­ma and Screw Dri­ver. Ajeet Praim­s­ingh, pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cers of the com­mit­tee, said on Wednes­day: "The stat­ue is com­plete and right now we are prepar­ing the foun­da­tion."

Praim­s­ingh said Popo's con­tri­bu­tions to the art form al­so im­pact­ed on sev­er­al artistes such as Rik­ki Jai, Dru­patee and Rooplal G. He said the com­mit­tee, which was es­tab­lished about three years ago, de­cid­ed to con­struct a life-sized mon­u­ment of Popo a short dis­tance from his Lal­be­har­ry Trace home in Mon­key Town. Praim­s­ingh al­so praised the artistes who will be per­form­ing lat­er tonight for vol­un­teer­ing their tal­ents for the show. Re­flect­ing on Popo's achieve­ments, Praim­s­ingh said Babla and the late Kan­chan record­ed their ver­sions of Pholourie Bi­na Chata­nee and Chad­dar Bechaw Bal­ma. He al­so per­formed a se­lec­tion with ca­lyp­son­ian Black Stal­in in 1995. One of Popo's songs, Moth­er's Love is most played every year on Moth­er's Day be­cause of its deep mean­ing, he said.

"We are look­ing for­ward to mem­bers of the pub­lic com­ing for­ward to pa­tro­n­ise the show," Praim­s­ingh added. Popo's wife, Kayso, said in an in­ter­view on Wednes­day: "I still miss him so much and when­ev­er I hear his songs, his mem­o­ry comes to mind." She said re­cent­ly she heard peo­ple "talk of him so high­ly" and she be­came sad be­cause he was no longer around. About the con­cert, she said she was hap­py that the com­mit­tee made the ef­fort and ap­plaud­ed the artistes who will be par­tic­i­pat­ing. She said: "We get­ting some good artistes and I am hap­py the com­mit­tee mem­bers are putting on the show. Hope­ful­ly it will be a suc­cess and peo­ple could turn out. Kayso said the mon­u­ment will be of­fi­cial­ly launched on Popo's birth­day–No­vem­ber 4.

His achieve­ments

* In 1988, he re­ceived a na­tion­al award for ex­cel­lence af­ter he was des­ig­nat­ed the top In­di­an vo­cal­ist for the year.

n He al­so re­ceived a "Caribbean Bac­cha­nal" tro­phy in 1996 and the 1993 Sun­shine Award for cop­ping first place in In­di­an So­ca.

* He re­ceived an award from blind chut­ney singer Asha Ka­machee in com­mem­o­ra­tion of his 1978 an­niver­sary when he was named Lo­cal Song Cham­pi­on.

* In 1993, Popo re­ceived an award in Fort Laud­erdale, Flori­da, af­ter he was named King of Chut­ney there.

* In 1993 Popo re­ceived the Hum­ming Bird Medal (Sil­ver).

Tonight's Event

Rik­ki Jai, Adesh Sama­roo, Ravi B, Hunter, Ram­ra­jie Prab­hoo, Rakesh Yankaran, Lily Ram­cha­ran and Heer­alal Ram­par­tap will en­ter­tain the crowd at the Sting Night Club in La Ro­maine from 7 pm.

Tick­ets are $80 at the door and $120 spe­cial re­serve.

All pro­ceeds from the con­cert will as­sist with the foun­da­tion of the Sun­dar Popo Mon­u­ment.

Any­one wish­ing to con­tribute to the build­ing project can do so at Re­pub­lic Bank, Pe­nal, ac­count #500 294 350 201