The 27th edi­tion of the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen Com­pe­ti­tion, staged by the Na­tion­al Women's Ac­tion Com­mit­tee (NWAC) last Mon­day, at­tract­ed a packed house at Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) in Port-of-Spain.Com­pe­ti­tion was fierce as 16 very tal­ent­ed women vied for the cov­et­ed prize, and to sit on the throne pre­vi­ous­ly oc­cu­pied by Kizzie Ruiz.

When the smoke cleared the judges chose Heather McIn­tosh, singing Not ah Call, as the 2011 queen.Sev­er­al pa­trons in at­ten­dance have hailed the event as the best ca­lyp­so queen fi­nal ever pro­duced.Run­ners-up to McIn­tosh were Leslie Ann El­lis, singing In De­nial, and Joy C with a song ti­tled The Cries of the Grand.Among the dig­ni­taries in at­ten­dance were Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism Min­is­ter Win­ston Pe­ters, and Am­bas­sador of the Re­pub­lic of Suri­name Fi­delia Grand Ga­lon.

Spe­cial awards were pre­sent­ed to Dru­patee Ram­goon­ai-Per­sad-the first fe­male of East In­di­an de­scent to sing ca­lyp­so-and, Dr Anne Mar­i­on Os­bourne, lec­tur­er in the De­part­ment of Cre­ative and Fes­ti­val Arts at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI), for her con­tri­bu­tion to mu­sic lit­er­a­cy in Trinidad and To­ba­go.