Shas­tri Boodan

Shami­ka De­noon is the new To­ba­go Her­itage Fes­ti­val Her­itage Ca­lyp­so Monarch.

De­noon, a res­i­dent of Bon Ac­cord, won the ti­tle with the com­po­si­tion Reignite D Flames at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex on Fri­day night to take home the $30,000 first prize.

De­noon lat­er told Guardian Me­dia that she was elat­ed to cap­ture the crown and looked for­ward to par­tic­i­pat­ing in To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val card­ed for Oc­to­ber.

She said the song was writ­ten by Shel­don Reid with as­sis­tance from Jesse Mar­lon Tay­lor.

She said, “The song is about our rich an­ces­try and that we as To­bag­o­ni­ans, what­ev­er dis­as­ter comes, we can hold on to our tra­di­tions be­cause this is who we are. This is em­bed­ded in us, we have that unique cre­ative sense of to­geth­er­ness.”

Placing second was Giselle Fraser Washington.

VINDRA GOPAUL

De­noon will be singing to­day at Eman­ci­pa­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions at Store Bay.

De­noon is founder of the Sis­ters in Cul­ture, an or­gan­i­sa­tion that helps young women in the com­mu­ni­ty to over­come what­ev­er chal­lenges they may have to face. She said her vic­to­ry is for her com­mu­ni­ty

“Go­ing back to the com­mu­ni­ty, I know they will hail me, I know they will be so proud. I did this for them.”

Plac­ing sec­ond was Giselle Gras­er Wash­ing­ton who sang Re­flect, Re­birth, Re­joice.

Cas­ton Cu­pid, who won the ti­tle the last time the com­pe­ti­tion was held, be­fore the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, land­ed in third spot with Pre­serve We Her­itage.

Plac­ing fourth and fifth re­spec­tive­ly were Dalanie Baynes with The Sea­son to Come Reignite and Les­ley Ann El­lis with Hail To­ba­go.

The Ex­tem­po com­pe­ti­tion was won by Samuel “Ringo” Mor­ris who beat a field of 3 com­peti­tors in­clud­ing De­noon, Mar­lon Cal­len­der and In­grid Brath­wait­he Matthew. Pho­tos Vin­dra Gopaul

Caston Cupid landed in third spot

VINDRA GOPAUL