Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

The cul­tur­al fra­ter­ni­ty and To­bag­o­ni­ans are mourn­ing the loss of renowned singer Os­car “Os­car B” Ben­jamin, who died yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter suf­fer­ing re­cent health com­pli­ca­tions.

The for­mer lead singer of the leg­endary Ja­maican band By­ron Lee and the Drag­o­naires died the very day a ben­e­fit event was sched­uled to take place at the Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex to help raise funds for his med­ical care. He was 57 years old.

His un­ex­pect­ed pass­ing turned the event in­to a trib­ute con­cert, with many artistes rem­i­nisc­ing and shar­ing mem­o­ries about the icon­ic singer.

To­bag­on­ian Mar­cia Mi­ran­da spoke to Guardian Me­dia be­fore hit­ting the stage last evening and re­called grow­ing up with Os­car B.

She said, “My fa­ther owned a night­club in To­ba­go and ob­vi­ous­ly Os­car passed through sign­ing his beau­ti­ful mu­sic and lend­ing his tal­ent.”

Mi­ran­da said she last saw him per­form around Christ­mas time, where they chat­ted about a med­ical in­ci­dent in­volv­ing one of his close rel­a­tives. She said she was stunned up­on hear­ing the dev­as­tat­ing news of his pass­ing.

“I re­al­ly thought we were com­ing here to heal, to bring hope. I re­al­ly had no idea that Os­car had got to that stage where we would have lost him.”

Mean­while, singer Prince Unique said, “Me and Os­car go way back. I re­mem­ber in the ear­lies when Os­car B was em­cee at Sig­nal Hill School for Ju­nior Ca­ly­poso Monarch, I saw the bril­liance in him.”

Prince Unique said he en­cour­aged Os­car B to be­gin singing so­ca and ca­lyp­so and take the craft se­ri­ous­ly.

“When Ca­lyp­so Rose came to To­ba­go in 1986 to open a tent, I had the priv­i­lege of ask­ing her to in­clude us, and that is where he get his big break.”

He said Os­car B be­gan per­form­ing all over Trinidad and lat­er in­ter­na­tion­al­ly as his ca­reer took off.

Chut­ney singer Govin­da Ram­lo­gan said he looked up to Os­car B and had the priv­i­lege of per­form­ing on the same stage with him. He re­called hav­ing the un­en­vi­able task of per­form­ing af­ter Os­car B, who, in typ­i­cal fash­ion, had left the au­di­ence in a fren­zy. How­ev­er, he said some vet­er­an ad­vice from Os­car B helped him that day.

“He came to me and said, ‘Do not go on right way. Let the crowd cool down a bit.’ Oth­er artistes may want to com­pete and show off, but he looked out for the younger artistes.”

Hail­ing from Sig­nal Hill, Os­car B’s mu­si­cal jour­ney be­gan with the ac­claimed Sig­nal Hill Alum­ni Choir be­fore he rose to in­ter­na­tion­al promi­nence with By­ron Lee and the Drag­o­naires, a role he held for over four decades. He was wide­ly cel­e­brat­ed for in­fec­tious, high-en­er­gy hits like So­ca But­ter­fly, So­ca Bogle and So­ca Tatie (col­lab­o­ra­tions with dance­hall star Ad­mi­ral Bai­ley) which be­came mas­sive, glob­al car­ni­val an­thems, along­side pop­u­lar tracks like Girlie-Girlie, Rag­ga So­ca and his re­cent so­cial com­men­tary, AI vs Man.

Dur­ing the bud­get de­bate on Thurs­day, Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine an­nounced the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) had ap­proved funds to as­sist the singer’s med­ical ex­pens­es. Au­gus­tine had hailed the lega­cy of Os­car B, re­veal­ing he was in Ja­maica re­cent­ly and the singer was still a top­ic of dis­cus­sion.

Sig­nal Hill Sec­ondary yes­ter­day paid trib­ute to the leg­endary singer in a Face­book post fol­low­ing his pass­ing, say­ing he was more than a gift­ed singer.

“To­day, the mu­sic is a lit­tle qui­eter, the stage a lit­tle dim­mer, and our hearts heav­ier,” it said.

While not­ing his ac­com­plish­ments on the in­ter­na­tion­al stage, it said Os­car B re­mained ground­ed and friend­ly.

“Yet, de­spite his re­mark­able achieve­ments and ac­claim, he re­mained the very de­f­i­n­i­tion of hu­mil­i­ty. His warm smile, gen­tle spir­it, and gen­uine kind­ness made every­one feel seen, wel­comed, and val­ued.”