To­ba­go-born ca­lyp­son­ian Lord Nel­son (Robert Nel­son) was pre­sent­ed with a life­time award for his con­tri­bu­tion to cul­ture on Sat­ur­day.

Fol­low­ing his high en­er­gy per­for­mance on the sec­ond night of To­ba­go Loves So­ca at Ca­noe Bay, the 87-year-old bard was pre­sent­ed with a plaque by To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly (THA) Chief Sec­re­tary Kevin Charles.

Dressed in his trade­mark jump­suit and jack­et and sport­ing a thick gold chain, Nel­son per­formed three of his ca­lyp­so clas­sics, La La, Dis­co Dad­dy and Meh Lover, danc­ing with em­cee Nik­ki Cros­by at one stage in his per­for­mance and end­ing by tak­ing off his shoes.

In an in­ter­view back­stage, he said he was hap­py to re­ceive the award and had flown in from his home in New York for the event.

“Is Car­ni­val time so I have to come and shake, shake, shake,” he said.

Nel­son, who is sched­uled to per­form at oth­er events this sea­son, in­clud­ing Un­der the Trees at The Nor­mandie with the Sig­nal Hill Alum­ni Choir, said all of his ca­lyp­sos are still very much in de­mand.

“You don’t have no spe­cial song for Nel­lo, all of them are in de­mand.”

When asked for the se­cret to his health and longevi­ty he said: “I be­lieve in God and avoid ter­ri­ble things. If I open my mouth you go zip it up.”

He at­trib­ut­es his health to his di­et of seafood and said salt­fish is his favourite.

“I like it with bone, I like it with­out bone. I like it with dumpling, I like it with not too much salt. I love salt­fish,” he said.

Con­cert pro­mot­er Randy Glas­glow said he chose To­ba­go to host the three-day event be­cause most Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties are fo­cused on Trinidad.

“To­ba­go is such a beau­ti­ful is­land. Last year there was so much dif­fi­cul­ty with peo­ple to get trans­port, so we de­cid­ed to take the thing to the peo­ple. To­bag­o­ni­ans don’t have to wor­ry about get­ting a flight or a boat,” he said.

Glas­glow said big­ger events are planned and he was sat­is­fied with the turnout at the con­cert.

The show, which start­ed af­ter mid­night, al­so fea­tured per­for­mances by Bar­ba­di­an singer Marzville, Er­phaan Alves, Olatun­ji, Nailah Black­man, Farmer Nap­py and oth­ers.