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Saturday, May 24, 2025

Six-year-old’s tribute to emancipation

by

1018 days ago
20220809
Xhadien Darius with his mother Tamika.

Xhadien Darius with his mother Tamika.

INNIS FRANCIS

in­nis_fran­cis@ya­hoo.com

Young Xha­di­en Dar­ius has made an im­pres­sion­able mark on pro­mot­ers since his an­nounce­ment in the are­na of ca­lyp­so singing.

The six-year-old is the son of singing sen­sa­tion Tami­ka Dar­ius from Point Fortin. The younger Dar­ius burst on the scene dur­ing the heights of COVID-19 and has per­formed at sev­er­al shows and tal­ent com­pe­ti­tions.

His lat­est ven­ture is a re­cent­ly re­leased Eman­ci­pa­tion video penned by Bri­an Lon­don of the song, Africa.

The sec­ond-year pupil cap­tured the hearts of many with his reap­praisal of Too Young to So­ca at The Voice of La Brea com­pe­ti­tion last Sep­tem­ber and won, and he record­ed Kitchy Say as a trib­ute to shar­ing the same birth date as Lord Kitch­en­er. He is armed with the tool of voice, and sec­ond in NACC & NY­AC Eman­ci­pa­tion Ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion 2022.

On Sep­tem­ber 2, young Dar­ius would cel­e­brate his sec­ond an­niver­sary as T&T’s up­com­ing tal­ent; his first record­ing was writ­ten by his grand­moth­er An­gela Dar­ius ti­tled, D Right To Play which speaks of Ar­ti­cle 31 on the rights of chil­dren.

Al­ready two steel­band or­ches­tras have ap­proached Xha­di­en’s man­age­ment team to per­form his songs for Panora­ma 2023; the La Brea Nightin­gales and the oth­er is ten­ta­tive.

His moth­er said she is very se­lec­tive of pro­mot­ers call­ing for him to per­form at shows and the dis­tur­bances it can have on his aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. She said dur­ing the Au­gust/Sep­tem­ber school break he has four book­ings, three in Trinidad and one in To­ba­go.

Xhadien Darius during a photoshoot for his video Africa.

Xhadien Darius during a photoshoot for his video Africa.

INNIS FRANCIS

“I just like to sing. I just like to sing. My favourite song is my moth­er’s song, Moth­er,” he said.

Tami­ka said: “I spoke to him about it, and all he kept say­ing is he wants to sing and make videos. He don’t re­al­ly un­der­stand the term com­pe­ti­tion, and I like that, let him just en­joy him­self for now.”

His ren­di­tion of Africa has earned him glow­ing trib­utes by many sup­port­ing fans and some con­struc­tive ad­vice was giv­en by pro­duc­ers for his blos­som­ing ca­reer.

Tami­ka said: “I al­ways knew he had a love for ca­lyp­so mu­sic but it was my mom who en­cour­aged me to let him en­ter The Voice of La Brea even though he would have been com­pet­ing with 21-year-olds. I was a bit hes­i­tant as he was on­ly five but I sent him any­way. The com­pe­ti­tion was even­tu­al­ly bro­ken in­to two cat­e­gories, 12 and un­der and 13-21. We had to turn down a few projects be­cause it would have been too much for him at this age. I mean two, or three shows in one evening. Al­though I know he is ca­pa­ble, he could be­come over­whelmed so it is im­por­tant to have him pace him­self.”

Xha­di­en is ex­pect­ed to be a cast mem­ber in a CNC3 chil­dren’s pro­duc­tion and was a fi­nal­ist in NACC & NY­AC Eman­ci­pa­tion Ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion at the Cipri­ani Labour Col­lege on Au­gust 6.

He would al­so ap­pear on Damion Melville’s Chil­dren’s Show on Au­gust 22.


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