AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Ri­val­do Lon­don claimed the Na­tion­al Ac­tion Cul­tur­al Com­mit­tee’s 2026 Young Kings crown at the Car­ni­val City, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah, Port-of-Spain, on Tues­day night.

His vic­to­ry was sealed af­ter a poignant per­for­mance of his song Wa­ter Thick­er. Com­posed by Lon­don and Ken­ny Phillips, the song drew on the bib­li­cal sto­ry of Cain and Abel and flipped the old adage that “blood is thick­er than wa­ter,” sug­gest­ing that fam­i­ly is not al­ways safe or lov­ing.

In­stead, Lon­don, 23, de­liv­ered the mes­sage that strangers and those out­side one’s blood­line can some­times of­fer deep­er care, re­veal­ing who tru­ly shows up and that, in some cas­es, wa­ter is thick­er.

Lon­don is no stranger to the ca­lyp­so are­na, hav­ing se­cured the 2019 Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tle.

Marq Pierre fin­ished sec­ond with his ren­di­tion of How Yuh Feel­ing while Sher­win “Be­com­er” Babb was third with his piece Voice­mail to Moth­er Kam­la, which ques­tioned what the Prime Min­is­ter means by “lov­ing the cit­i­zen­ry,” ar­gu­ing that the mes­sage con­tra­dicts some of Gov­ern­ment’s re­cent ac­tions.

It was kaiso war­fare on the night though, as Lon­don com­pet­ed against 15 oth­er fi­nal­ists who wield­ed sharp wit, crafty lyrics and mem­o­rable melodies in pur­suit of the crown.

One af­ter the oth­er, each per­for­mance ex­plored a range of themes, touch­ing on so­cial is­sues and con­tem­po­rary po­lit­i­cal con­cerns.

Champs Fleur/Mt Lam­bert/Pe­tit Bourg coun­cil­lor Kadeem Gra­ham’s There Must be a Bet­ter Way echoed po­lit­i­cal dis­sat­is­fac­tion, em­ploy­ing the crick­et anal­o­gy—You can send your best spin­ners, but there are no win­ners.

How­ev­er, the night was not lim­it­ed to pol­i­tics.

Dar­wren “Pharaoh” Greenidge paid trib­ute to vet­er­an pan­man Lennox “Boogsie” Sharpe with his per­for­mance of Be Sharpe, while Nikal “St Nick” Shashie Go­sine chan­nelled a Baron-like vo­cal style and brought vet­er­an ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Sug­ar Aloes and Pink Pan­ther on stage for a Trib­ute to Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans.

Aaron Dun­can’s Birth­place was among the per­for­mances that had the au­di­ence singing along, fu­elled by pas­sion and pa­tri­o­tism.

Mean­while, Robert “Mas­ter G” Deane had the au­di­ence rap­tur­ous­ly agree­ing with his comedic but se­ri­ous plea of Doh Put Meh Dey—in a geri­atric home.

Re­sults

1st - Ri­val­do Lon­don – Wa­ter Thick­er

2nd - Marq Pierre – How Yuh Feel­ing

3rd - Sher­win Babb (Be­com­er) – Voice­mail to Moth­er Kam­la

4th - Nicholas Ash­by (Nikko Ash) – Spe­cial As­sign­ment

5th - Ny­ol Man­swell - My Prayer for Peace

6th - Aaron Dun­can – Birth­place