Melis­sa Doughty

Forty semi­fi­nal­ists have been se­lect­ed to per­form at the an­nu­al Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta com­pe­ti­tion on Feb­ru­ary 2 at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do.The semi­fi­nal­ists were an­nounced yes­ter­day at Kaiso House, Queen's Park Sa­van­nah in Port-of-Spain.

No­tably miss­ing was Cro Cro (We­st­on Rawl­ins), who has opt­ed out of this year's com­pe­ti­tion.Among the top names on the list are for­mer mon­archs Chalk­dust (Hol­lis Liv­er­pool), Sug­ar Aloes (Michael Os­ouna) and Singing San­dra (San­dra des Vi­gnes-Milling­ton).

The ca­lyp­so monarch fi­nals, tra­di­tion­al­ly held on Di­manche Gras night (Car­ni­val Sun­day), have now been shift­ed to the Thurs­day be­fore Car­ni­val, dubbed Ter­rif­ic Thurs­day by Bro Re­sis­tance (Lu­ta­lo Masim­ba). Speak­ing at the news con­fer­ence held yes­ter­day to an­nounce the se­mi fi­nal­ists, Re­sis­tance, pres­i­dent of the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion said: "It is go­ing to be the most pres­ti­gious item in the T&T Car­ni­val.

"We are about to do this pre­sen­ta­tion at a mo­ment tinged with sad­ness, due to the pass­ing of Mr Seadley Joseph (Pen­guin) who was a for­mer ca­lyp­so monarch as well as a pres­i­dent of the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans' Or­gan­i­sa­tion.

It is a kind of sad mo­ment for us even in the midst of the cel­e­bra­tions." Joseph, 70, died on Sun­day.Semi­fi­nal­ists will per­form on­ly one song, rather than the two sung in the past. The show is sched­uled to be­gin at noon and pa­trons pay $200 at the door. Ad­vance tick­ets at $180 have been sold out. TU­CO said there will be an af­ter par­ty sched­uled to end at 2 am on Fri­day.

The po­lit­i­cal com­men­tary and so­cial com­men­tary fi­nals take place on Feb­ru­ary 4 at the Kaiso­ra­ma, al­so on the night of the fi­nals of the ex­tem­po com­pe­ti­tion. The fi­nal­ists in the so­cial com­men­tary cat­e­go­ry are Helon Fran­cis, singing Taint­ed Lega­cy; Rod­er­ick Gor­don (Mr Chucky) per­form­ing Bear with Me; and Shel­don Nugget with One Race.

The fi­nal­ists in the po­lit­i­cal com­men­tary cat­e­go­ry are De­von Seales, singing Game Show Pol­i­tics; Eu­nice Pe­ters with None of the Above and Kurt Allen (The last bad­john of ca­lyp­so) singing Po­lit­i­cal Sin Pho­ny.

The List

Alana Sin­nette–No Moral Au­thor­i­ty

Alex Gift–To­ba­go Chalkie – A Spranger's Sto­ry

Al­lan For­tune – Mu­da­da – Oh Gad Oh!

An­tho­ny Hen­drick­son – All Rounder – Look How Trin­ba­go Come

Car­los James – Skatie – Prophet With­out Ho­n­our

De­von Seale – Game Show Pol­i­tics

Dil­lion Thomas – Dil­ly Suede – For ah Crown

Er­ic Tay­lor – Pink Pan­ther – Trav­el Woes

Eu­nice Pe­ters – None of the Above

Giselle Fras­er Wash­ing­ton – GG – Stretch Out Your Hand

Heather Mac In­tosh – The Old Man's Lament

Helon Fran­cis – Taint­ed Lega­cy

Hen­son Wright – Ca­lyp­so Prince – Asy­lum With­out a Gate

Hol­lis Liv­er­pool – Chalk­dust – Vir­ginia's Alzheimer

Karen Ec­cles-Thomas – Give I will Rec­i­p­ro­cate

Karene As­che – Meh Pard­na Ship

Khad­ja An­toine – Tears for the Chil­dren

Kizzie Ruiz – In the Age of Blog

Kurt Allen – Last Bad­john of Ca­lyp­so – Po­lit­i­cal Sin Pho­ny

Les­ley Ann El­lis – Who Runs the World

Lynette Steele – La­dy Gyp­sy – Brand Name

Mar­i­on Pam­ponette – The Last Days

Mar­sha Charles – La­dy Adana – Last Call

Mar­vah Joseph –Mar­vel­lous Mar­va – Come Back to What

Michael Leg­erton – Pro­tec­tor – Lick Dem Down

Michael Os­ouna – Sug­ar Aloes – Not de Land

Michelle Hen­ry – Blind Man's Bluff

My­ron Bruce – My­ron B – Os­car Awards

Nicole Thomas – Take Me Away

Ran­dolph Hillaire – Count Robin – Politi­cians in Heav­en

Rod­er­ick Gor­don – Mr Chucky – Bear with Me

Roslyn Reid –With You I Be­long

San­dra des Vi­gnes-Milling­ton – Singing San­dra – Fail­ure is Not an Op­tion

Sean Daniel – D Psalmist – Rain­bow Race

Shami­ka De­noon – Let's Talk To­ba­go

Shel­don Nugget – One Race

Ter­ri Lyons – Born Fight­er

Vic­tor Mc Don­ald – Mr Mack – Side Ef­fects

Vic­to­ria Coop­er – Queen Vic­to­ria – D Be­tray­al

Win­ston Scar­bor­ough – The Orig­i­nal de Fos­to Him­self – Ca­lyp­so Glad Yuh Gone

Re­serves–

Ann Marie Parks Ko­jo – Twig­gy – Peo­ple First

Lor­nette Nedd Reid – Fya Em­press – Painter of Im­ages