Funny how times have changed, and the wheels of calypso have turned. Long ago calypsonians used to sing for a drink of rum or a goldcup, or "anything you have." In 1956 Sparrow won the first prize of the Calypso Monarch competition. The prize was a paltry $40 which could have bought many drinks of cacapool rum. The following year, Sparrow led a Calypso Boycott that had organisers scrambling. Today, the first prize in the Calypso Monarch Competition is a whopping $500,000, and finalists in tonight's show are threatening a calypso boycott. They say "one million or nothing."
Led by Singing Sandra, these troubadours are indeed upset that calypso has been left behind in the prize structure race. Oh how the wheels have turned.