Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) pres­i­dent Ains­ley King says ca­lyp­so is not on­ly alive but soar­ing, de­clar­ing that the art­form is firm­ly in good hands as it con­tin­ues to en­joy re­newed en­er­gy and pub­lic sup­port.

King made the re­marks yes­ter­day dur­ing the an­nounce­ment of the 40 se­mi-fi­nal­ists for the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion and the 15 fi­nal­ists for the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch.

Ac­cord­ing to King, the pres­ence of ca­lyp­so is be­ing strong­ly felt across the coun­try, both on the air­waves and on the stages.

“Ca­lyp­so is present. We are hear­ing ca­lyp­so get­ting a lot of air­play. It is al­so very present be­cause ca­lyp­so is all over at this time,” he said.

He al­so point­ed to in­creased at­ten­dance at ca­lyp­so events as a clear sign of the genre’s resur­gence, not­ing that pub­lic in­ter­est con­tin­ues to grow with each pass­ing sea­son.

“There was a time when we were hear­ing peo­ple say­ing that ca­lyp­so is a dy­ing art­form. To­day, I don’t be­lieve that say­ing that will be a cor­rect state­ment,” King added.

He said TU­CO has al­so ob­served a grow­ing in­ter­est from artistes out­side the tra­di­tion­al ca­lyp­so space, with per­form­ers from oth­er mu­si­cal gen­res in­creas­ing­ly col­lab­o­rat­ing with­in ca­lyp­so tents.

“We are see­ing in­ter­est of artistes from dif­fer­ent gen­res and an in­crease where artistes are com­ing to work with us in the tent. So it’s clear where ca­lyp­so is con­cerned, in 2026, we can de­clare ca­lyp­so is back, ca­lyp­so is alive,” King said.

Among the 40 se­mi-fi­nal­ists hop­ing to de­throne reign­ing monarch Helon Fran­cis are for­mer ti­tle hold­ers Du­ane O’ Con­nor, Ter­ri Lyons, Karen As­che and Heather Mac In­tosh.

Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2026 – Prize Struc­ture

1st place: $1 mil­lion

2nd place: $500,000

3rd place: $350,000

4th place: $250,000

5th place: $175,000

6th–12th place: $45,000 each

Se­mi-fi­nal­ists for the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion

Ad­de­lon Brave­boy (Ban­jela)

Ak­e­nathon Lewis (Yung Bred­da)

An­tho­ny La Fleur (Squeezy Rankin)

Arnold Jor­dan (Jaw D)

Bethany Light­bourne (Trin­i­ty)

Bri­an Lon­don

Cather­ine Chan­dler (Kassy)

Cindy Al­leyne (Ife Al­leyne)

Curlis­sa Charles-Mapp

Dave Maikoo (Pae3ot)

De­von Seale

Dil­lon Thomas (Dil­ly Suede)

Du­ane O’Con­nor

Giselle Fras­er (GG)

Heather Mac In­tosh

J’leise Orr

Jer­risha Dun­can Reg­is-Pa­ponette

Karene As­che (The Ca­lyp­so Princess)

Kerice Pas­call

Lystra Nurse (La­dy Lystra)

Mark How­ell Paul

Marq Pierre

Mar­sha Clifton (La­dy Adan­na)

Meguel­la Si­mon

Muham­mad Muwak­il (Free­town Col­lec­tive)

Nakasa Tahch­er (Nakasa)

Neville Brown (Bun­ny B)

Nicholas Lu­cas

Nicole Thomas-Clarke

Ri­val­do Lon­don

Rod­er­ick Gor­don (Chuck Gor­don)

Roslyn Reid Hayes (Roslyn)

Sam­raj Jaimun­gal (Rik­ki Jai)

Sean Daniel (D’ Psalmist)

Sean Singh (Ifa)

Sher­win Babb (Be­com­er)

Ta’Zyah O’Con­nor

Tamei­ka Dar­ius

Ter­ri Lyons

Wendy Gar­rick (Wendy Gar­rick)