“Wrong Side” is a 2019 calypso sung by Sasha-Ann Moses. She is at the Revue Tent for a second year and she is a former Calypso Queen. Sasha-Ann usually sings conscious traditional calypsoes, but she has ventured into soca and R&B.
Her calypsoes ‘The Essence of Building’, ‘A Matter of Trust’ and ‘The Main Witness’ were named in the NACC’s Top 20 Calypso Stars of Gold Awards in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
“The Main Witness” entailed the trials and struggles that state witnesses undergo, due to the delays in the criminal justice system. That calypso took her to winner’s row at the National Youth Action Committee (NYAC) Stars of Tomorrow competition. With the same song, she won the National Women’s Action Committee (NWAC) National Calypso Queens crown and progressed to the finals of the National Calypso Monarch.
The lyrics sung by this Year 3 student at the Faculty of Law, UWI St Augustine comment on the attitude to money and business among too many Trinidadians and Tobagonians:
Verse 2
If we want to start to ride on this business journey
We’ve got to sit and plan and set ourselves goals
And every day we rise, and shine won’t be always rosy
Along the way, they’re obstacles and potholes
With every no, we should use it to our advantage
Cause we get from life, the way we behave
We could be depressed, if we focus on the spillage
Gateways open up only for the brave
There can be great wealth and growth
Once we keep improving our skills
Learn to increase our worth
That is how we would pay we bills
We can’t keep believing, that wealth is just for a few
And find it hard to change that view
Chorus 2
Cause we standing on the/Wrong side of the cash register /Wrong side!
Standing on the wrong side of the cash register /Wrong side!
If we are into business /And negative things we are told
And don’t know that’s part of the business world
And you think every day brings sunshine/And every venture is a goldmine
Well is you we come to chide /You thinking wrong side!
Wrong side
I am lamenting, like many others, that the more meaningful calypsoes such as “Wrong Side”, the ones which challenge us to think, are heard at the tents but not enough on the radio. These are calypsoes which we should listen to throughout the year.
The Carnival season should allow patrons at tents to sample, first-hand the full range of the artistry among the singers.
It is really sad that enough festive calypsoes (soca), some of which may lead to the Road March, are not on the programmes. Today you can hear these types of calypsoes at the fetes and in rotation at some of the radio stations. But the tents will become more attractive to fans if the festive calypsoes are strategically mixed with lyrically expressive songs like “Wrong Side”.
Aiyegoro Ome
Mt Lambert