DAVID CUFFY

Reg­is­tra­tion for the Gift To The Na­tion, the Lord Bryn­ner 50th An­niver­sary Na­tion­al In­de­pen­dence Ca­lyp­so Com­pe­ti­tion clos­es to­day. The com­pe­ti­tion, pro­duced by Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Or­gan­i­sa­tion (Tu­co), with the Min­istry of Arts and Mul­ti­cul­tur­al­ism as ex­ec­u­tive pro­duc­er and ma­jor spon­sor, is open to cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go, 18 years of age and over. Pre­lim­i­nary round of the con­test takes place to­mor­row and Sun­day at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA), Port-of-Spain, start­ing at 9 am on both days. It goes to To­ba­go on Mon­day. Ad­mis­sion to the pre­lim­i­nar­ies is free.

Twen­ty-five singers will ad­vance from the pre­lim­i­nar­ies to the semi­fi­nals at Palms Club, San Fer­nan­do, on Au­gust 11 start­ing at 8 pm, for which ad­mis­sion will cost $50. From the 25 con­tes­tants, ten will be se­lect­ed to com­pete in the fi­nal on Au­gust 25 at the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain. The win­ner will take home a cash prize of $500,000. Sec­ond place is worth $250,000 and third $150,000. Fourth to tenth plac­ings will re­ceive $50,000 each.

Reg­is­tra­tion is tak­ing place at Tu­co's of­fice, Jern­ing­ham Av­enue, Bel­mont, and all zon­al of­fices of the or­gan­i­sa­tion.