JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 31, 2025

Get well soon, Birdie

by

20100720

For as long as most of us can re­mem­ber, the Mighty Spar­row has been an in­te­gral part of the so­cial and po­lit­i­cal fab­ric of Trinidad and To­ba­go. Through­out his five and a half decades as a much-her­ald­ed en­ter­tain­er, Spar­row has won the ac­claim and re­spect of ador­ing fans through­out the world, but more par­tic­u­lar­ly in the Caribbean and in the West In­di­an di­as­po­ras.

This news­pa­per, there­fore, not on­ly un­der­stands but al­so shares the ache and deep con­cern of many at the sight of Spar­row not be­ing as mo­bile and as dy­nam­ic as we have long grown to ap­pre­ci­ate and love him. His dis­tress­ing med­ical state of af­fairs has been at­trib­uted to a mys­tery ail­ment with which the cham­pi­on bard has been af­flict­ed. It is heart­en­ing that this coun­try's supreme en­ter­tain­er is con­tin­u­ing to ac­cess the best pos­si­ble health care, and we anx­ious­ly look for­ward to him quick­ly con­quer­ing this health set­back. We know we are bor­der­ing on re­dun­dan­cy when we urge col­lec­tive na­tion­al prayers for this tow­er­ing artis­tic hero, since many would al­ready have been whis­per­ing their qui­et en­treaties for im­prove­ment to his health.

The truth is that Slinger Fran­cis­co has been such an es­sen­tial as­pect of our na­tion­al con­scious­ness that he is con­sid­ered as Trinida­di­an and To­bag­on­ian as our na­tive cui­sine, our pi­cong and our over­all way of life. He cap­tures and ex­udes the es­sen­tial lo­cal per­son­al­i­ty–full of flair, char­ac­ter and panache. Hav­ing moved to Trinidad from Grena­da when he was still a babe-in-arms, Spar­row's con­scious­ness and his skill as a per­former de­vel­oped in the caul­dron of the post-war pe­ri­od dur­ing which the oth­er icon of this coun­try cul­ture, the steel­pan, was de­vel­oped. He burst on­to the artis­tic world with brava­do, catchy lyrics and ap­peal­ing melodies.

His sem­i­nal Jean and Di­nah, com­posed and per­formed at the end of his teenaged years, in­di­cates the mea­sure of the tal­ent­ed and ef­fu­sive ca­lyp­son­ian.

In an un­stop­pable ca­reer, he has won vir­tu­al­ly every ca­lyp­so com­pe­ti­tion avail­able to him, has been ser­e­nad­ed and ho­n­oured around the globe, in­clud­ing be­ing grant­ed an hon­orary doc­tor­ate by the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies and the Or­der of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty. In a sto­ried ca­reer, he has won Trinidad Car­ni­val's Road March com­pe­ti­tion eight times and has been named Ca­lyp­so Monarch 11 times. Spar­row has al­so been the sub­ject of rig­or­ous aca­d­e­m­ic and in­tel­lec­tu­al ex­am­i­na­tion by schol­ars who have probed the depth and scope of his lyrics, his easy fa­cil­i­ty with a wide ar­ray of is­sues and his en­dur­ing pas­sion for the re­gion.

In­deed, no oth­er Caribbean en­ter­tain­er boasts the ex­ten­sive reper­toire of Spar­row, as ev­i­denced to a new gen­er­a­tion of fans when he re-is­sued his works in more than 40 com­plete com­pact discs.

Since his ex­cit­ing en­try in­to the ca­lyp­so world, Birdie has helped Caribbean peo­ple to bet­ter un­rav­el and ap­pre­ci­ate their on­go­ing life sto­ry, their dif­fi­cult colo­nial past and the pos­si­bil­i­ties of their col­lec­tive fu­ture. He has done so with char­ac­ter­is­tic un­bound­ed self-con­fi­dence, some­times bor­der­ing on au­dac­i­ty. As the years rolled on, Spar­row mel­lowed in­to more than a ca­lyp­so sto­ry­teller, but al­so evolved in­to a Caribbean sage of sorts, no doubt the rich re­sult of decades of trot­ting the globe and rub­bing shoul­ders with in­ter­na­tion­al lu­mi­nar­ies.

There is no gain­say­ing that the Mighty Spar­row be­longs to the ilk of the re­gion's most ac­com­plished and re­spect­ed fig­ures of lit­er­a­ture, the arts and so­cial sci­ences–join­ing such fig­ures as Naipaul, Wal­cott, Mar­ley and Williams. In wish­ing him a speedy re­cov­ery, we ho­n­our him and thank him for en­ter­tain­ing us through the years, in the process in­spir­ing us to do like him and reach our fullest po­ten­tial. Thanks for the mu­sic, Birdie. And get bet­ter soon.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Father Anthony Abraham, centre, alongside Jesus Explosion coordinator Lesley Taylor-Gouveia, left, Kerry Ragoobarsingh and Father Ian Taylor, right, pray over the congregation during Jesus Explosion 23 at the Cheryl F Greaves Auditorium, Bishop Anstey High School East, Trincity, on July 19.

Jesus Explosion 23: Visiting priest feeds RC faithful

Yesterday
Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Courtesy Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Minister of Rural Development and Local Government Khadijah Ameen, right, presents Israel Khan, SC, with the Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League Street Recognition Award while Rajah congratulates him during a ceremony at the St Augustine South Recreation Ground two Sundays ago.

Courtesy Aneal Rajah Windball Cricket League

Israel Khan honoured by community cricket league

Yesterday
SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa chairman Eudaine Garcia meets Guyana President Irfaan Ali

SSCasa steps up Caricom collaboration after summit

2 days ago
Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

ANISTO ALVES

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

Then acting Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Barry Padarath, right, toasts with Argentina Ambassador Gustavo Martinez Pandiani during the Argentine National Day function at the Renassaince Club Room, The Renaissance at Shorelands, on July 9.

ANISTO ALVES

Argentina wants to export world-famous beef to T&T

2 days ago