SAN­DRA L BLOOD

Born and raised in Laven­tille, for­mer Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch Rod­er­ick “Chuck” Gor­don says he has a “to­ry” to tell—one aimed at build­ing men­tal re­silience and fos­ter­ing a more com­pas­sion­ate so­ci­ety. His lat­est sin­gle, Love Meh­self, de­liv­ers that mes­sage through mu­sic ground­ed in per­son­al re­flec­tion and so­cial aware­ness.

A grad­u­ate of The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, where he earned a BSc in So­cial Work, Gor­don brings pro­fes­sion­al in­sight to his artistry, hav­ing al­so worked with­in the Fam­i­ly Court sys­tem. He says the in­creas­ing­ly ex­treme—and in some cas­es fa­tal—re­spons­es to every­day chal­lenges are deeply trou­bling, point­ing to a wide­spread in­abil­i­ty among in­di­vid­u­als to prac­tise self-love and emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion.

He al­so ac­knowl­edges that ac­cess to men­tal health sup­port re­mains un­even, mak­ing cre­ative ex­pres­sion a crit­i­cal out­let for heal­ing and de­vel­op­ment.

“Love Meh­self is deeply per­son­al to me,” Gor­don said. “The song and mu­sic video cel­e­brate life, growth, and find­ing pur­pose. It’s a vi­su­al and emo­tion­al jour­ney start­ing in Laven­tille—my fam­i­ly home and the space where I spent most of my years.”

Of­ten char­ac­terised by hard­ship, Laven­tille holds a dif­fer­ent mean­ing for Gor­don. It is, he says, a place of ground­ing—shap­ing his iden­ti­ty and truth. The video traces a phys­i­cal and sym­bol­ic jour­ney from the com­mu­ni­ty through Port-of-Spain, pass­ing spaces that re­flect the re­al­i­ties of gov­er­nance, fi­nance, and cul­ture.

“Those spaces rep­re­sent the pres­sures we face as a peo­ple,” he ex­plained. “But the jour­ney is al­so in­ter­nal. The song speaks to heal­ing, self-re­flec­tion, and ac­cep­tance. I am flawed and in need of heal­ing. The pain I car­ry needs my ac­cep­tance. I may nev­er be per­fect—but the jour­ney is worth it.”

At its core, the track car­ries a mes­sage Gor­don be­lieves should res­onate across gen­er­a­tions: “Love meh­self in the hard times; love meh­self and hold nice vibes.” He urges both adults and chil­dren to em­brace self-worth, even amid frus­tra­tion and emo­tion­al strain.

“Even in chal­leng­ing mo­ments, we have to pro­tect our peace, rise above ill-guid­ed opin­ions, and find clar­i­ty,” he said.

Known for his sharp so­cial com­men­tary, Gor­don main­tains that his role as a ca­lyp­son­ian re­mains un­changed—to con­front in­jus­tice and speak truth to pow­er. How­ev­er, Love Meh­self ex­pands that man­date in­ward.

“Be­fore we can trans­form our coun­try, our cul­ture, and our cir­cum­stances, we must first do the in­ter­nal work,” he not­ed.

Vi­su­al­ly, the ac­com­pa­ny­ing video re­in­forces this idea, mov­ing from ten­sion and in­tro­spec­tion to a place of re­lease and bal­ance—un­der­scor­ing the pos­si­bil­i­ty of re­new­al af­ter hard­ship.

The re­lease fol­lows a con­tentious mo­ment in Gor­don’s ca­reer. Ear­li­er this year, ca­lyp­so au­di­ences ex­pressed dis­ap­point­ment when his po­lit­i­cal­ly charged song To­ry Time failed to ad­vance to the fi­nals of the Di­manche Gras. Many be­lieved the per­for­mance—praised for its in­ci­sive lyrics and satire—fell vic­tim to re­stric­tive judg­ing cri­te­ria.

Rather than re­treat, Gor­don has dou­bled down on his com­mit­ment to so­cial­ly con­scious sto­ry­telling. He has since launched a dig­i­tal ca­lyp­so plat­form, cre­at­ing space to share his work di­rect­ly with au­di­ences.

His track record un­der­scores his ver­sa­til­i­ty: from win­ning Best Male Vo­cal­ist at the Schools Parang Fes­ti­val in 2004, to suc­ces­sive ap­pear­ances in the So­ca and Groovy Monarch fi­nals, to cap­tur­ing the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle three times be­tween 2014 and 2016. In 2018, he ex­pand­ed in­to the­atre with a role in the mu­si­cal Sing De Cho­rus, fur­ther demon­strat­ing his range as a per­former and cul­tur­al in­no­va­tor.

For Gor­don, how­ev­er, ac­co­lades are sec­ondary to im­pact. With Love Meh­self, he is urg­ing lis­ten­ers to pause, re­flect, and choose a path of self-com­pas­sion.

“To any­one fac­ing hard­ship, pres­sure, or un­cer­tain­ty,” he said, “take a mo­ment to breathe, re­flect, and choose your bet­ter self. Find a way to love yuh­self—even in the hard times.”