AN­GE­LO JE­DIDI­AH

an­ge­lo.je­didi­ah@guardian.co.tt

Tamei­ka Dar­ius has been crowned Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen for 2026, claim­ing one of the Car­ni­val sea­son’s most sought-af­ter ti­tles.

Singing in po­si­tion num­ber two dur­ing the Na­tion­al Women’s Ac­tion Com­mit­tee (NWAC) event at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, on Sun­day, Dar­ius up­held the fam­i­ly’s lega­cy in the ca­lyp­so space, re­gain­ing the crown she won in 2023.

Her piece, No Love, was com­posed by her moth­er, An­gela, who has al­so writ­ten songs for Tamei­ka’s son, Xhaiden Dar­ius—the reign­ing Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch.

Dressed in all white and ac­cent­ed with pur­ple-bead­ed jew­ellery, Dar­ius ex­ud­ed a bold on­stage pres­ence, com­mand­ing the au­di­ence’s at­ten­tion with every move.

Through her vo­cal per­for­mance, Dar­ius de­liv­ered the lyrics as a point­ed plea that there is “no love for ca­lyp­so,” adding that Trin­bag­o­ni­ans should “call reg­gae, rap or dance­hall”—rather than ca­lyp­so­ni­ans—when seek­ing voic­es to ad­dress so­cial con­cerns. She claimed that ca­lyp­so­ni­ans con­tin­ue to be ridiculed, si­lenced and side­lined out­side the Car­ni­val sea­son.

In the end, the judges gave her the nod over 15 oth­er con­tes­tants who bat­tled with pas­sion and de­liv­ered pow­er­ful per­for­mances.

Fol­low­ing the an­nounce­ment of the re­sults yes­ter­day morn­ing, Dar­ius took to so­cial me­dia, say­ing she stood “hum­bled, grate­ful and deeply ho­n­oured to be crowned the 2026 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen.”

“This song came from truth, from ex­pe­ri­ence, and from love for an art form that has giv­en me a voice since child­hood. Thank you to every­one who lis­tened, sup­port­ed, and be­lieved. This crown be­longs to ca­lyp­so.”

Nao­mi Sin­nette and Ker­ine “Tiny” Williams-Fi­garo placed sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly.

Since its in­cep­tion in 1985, the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen Com­pe­ti­tion has served as a trans­for­ma­tive pil­lar for fe­male artistes.

For decades, the are­na of ca­lyp­so was large­ly seen as a male-dom­i­nat­ed fron­tier, where women were of­ten sub­jects of the song rather than the sto­ry­tellers, un­til NWAC’s in­ter­ven­tion changed that nar­ra­tive by cre­at­ing a ded­i­cat­ed space that em­pow­ered women to ad­dress so­cial in­jus­tice, gen­der equal­i­ty, and po­lit­i­cal gov­er­nance through their own unique lens­es.

The com­pe­ti­tion has been a pro­lif­ic breed­ing ground for some of the most icon­ic names in Caribbean mu­sic, serv­ing as a launch­pad for leg­ends who would go on to con­quer the world stage.

Among them is the late “Grand­mas­ter” of fe­male ca­lyp­so, Denyse Plum­mer, who found her foot­ing, evolv­ing from a pop singer in­to a ca­lyp­so pow­er­house.

Sim­i­lar­ly, the late Singing San­dra, a two-time Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch, utilised the Queen com­pe­ti­tion to hone the pow­er­ful so­cial com­men­taries that would even­tu­al­ly make her a na­tion­al icon.

Oth­er lu­mi­nar­ies like Karene As­che, who be­came one of the youngest mil­lion­aires in the art form’s his­to­ry, and the ver­sa­tile Ter­ri Lyons have al­so passed through the NWAC ranks, prov­ing that the “Queen” ti­tle is of­ten a pre­cur­sor to na­tion­al sov­er­eign­ty in the Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nals.

Re­cent rule changes for the 2026 sea­son—such as al­low­ing one-time win­ners to re-en­ter the fray un­til they se­cure a sec­ond ti­tle—were aimed at the con­tin­u­ous de­vel­op­ment of the artistes.

Top six place­ments in the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen 2026 com­pe­ti­tion:

1st- Tamekia Dar­ius (No Love)

2nd- Nao­mi Sin­nette (Talk­ing Down)

3rd- Ker­ine ‘Tiny’ Williams-Fi­garo (You Nev­er Know)

4th- Alanan ‘La­dy Watch­man’ Sin­nette-Khan (Not Venezuela)

5th- Ife Al­leyne (Re­al Vic­to­ry)

6th- Giselle Fras­er (No Vil­lage Can’t)