TWO iconic calypsonians will be honoured by the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) on October 25, to herald the official start of the third instalment of the Tobago carnival.
McCartha Linda Sandy-Lewis, also known as Calypso Rose, and the late Winston Bailey, stage name The Mighty Shadow, are two of eight icons, five posthumously, set to be honoured for their contribution to nation-building, culture and leadership.
At a post-executive council news briefing on October 23, Assistant Secretary of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation Niall George said the THA will celebrate the icons by renaming prominent streets and landmarks.
The other six icons are legendary football coach Bertille St Clair; former chief administrator Allan Richards; the late politician and pharmacist James AA Biggart; deceased anthropologist Dr Jacob Delworth Elder; Aloysius Morean and Edna Morean (education), both deceased.
Secretary of Infrastructure Trevor James said it is important to pay homage to those that have inspired Tobagonians over the years. In a media release on October 23, he said, “Tobago does not only have a proud heritage but also a collection of legends that have made their marks on the international stage and psyche of what it means to be Tobagonian. We are a great people deserving of honour, and as an Executive and citizenry, we owe it to them to recollect, recognise and celebrate, as a joint expression of gratitude, and for younger ones to see and be inspired as well.”
The event is set to take place at the Scarborough Esplanade. 
As the carnival festivities began on October 23 with the Soca Titans competition, George predicted a bumper carnival season, set to culminate on October 27 with the parade of the bands. He said he has received reports from hoteliers that occupancy is at 100 per cent.
“We’re also receiving reports of an increase in costume sales. I know there would be late persons trying to get on to the island, in that sphere, we are hoping that we receive the support that we asked for from both Caribbean Airlines and the Port Authority.”
He said the theme of this year's event is mud and revelry, as he called on those who intend to patronise the events to make it unprecedented, whilst also making prioritising safety.
“We would have done our last safety checks on last week Friday which would have been a tabletop exercise. We would have been presented with many scenarios and how they would be solved.”
​He added: “We are saying to Tobago, have fun, have clean fun and know that the background work would have been done so as to ensure that we have a very safe and successful carnival. I am saying to each and every one, let us enjoy the festivities to the best of our ability, let us come out, let us make the best of it.”
He encouraged the patrons to make use of the spots after the festivities to take photos.
“Enjoy the beauty of the island, enjoy the cuisine of the island, the warmth of the people on the island and let’s make it the best as we take this step in continuing to make Tobago the greatest little island on the planet.” (Source: Newsday, October 23, 2024)

Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly Farley Augustine chats with Calypso Rose aka Linda McCartha Sandy-Lewis on August 19 in Brooklyn, New York, as she holds a plaque in her honour from the Tobago Empowerment and Alliance Mission (TEAM).
TEAM honoured Rose as part of its Tobago Day celebration which was highlighted on August 18 in the courtyard of the Nazareth High School, 475E 57th Street, Brooklyn, New York. The event featured various elements of Tobago’s cultural heritage: music, dance and food.
Augustine addressed the celebration. He was accompanied by a contingent comprising THA officials, tourism stakeholders and several of Tobago’s leading artistes.
(Source: Newsday, August 28, 2024)

NIGEL A CAMPBELL
Yes Productions, this past Mother’s Day weekend, presented Queen of the Road: The Calypso Rose Musical to a packed house at the Central Bank Auditorium, delivering another example of national theatre grounded in the ethos of Carnival, and in this case, thankfully, elevated above the many examples of low production value and “uneven quality” of Best Village drama.
It was an evening of light entertainment in which the musical biography runs counter to the hyper-produced West End or Broadway experience like Tina –The Tina Turner Musical or Get Up, Stand Up The Bob Marley Musical, but follows a local path defined previously by director and playwright Rhoma Spencer’s own Bassman (Shadow) in 1995, and later by Zeno Constance’s The Road Make To Walk (Lord Kitchener) in 2003.
The musical had been in development for a while, and advanced significantly at the University of Toronto as part of Spencer’s 2022-23 Artist-in-Residence at the Queer and Trans Research Lab there. According to the lab’s website, “Spencer had been working since 2019 on a jukebox musical based on the life of queer Caribbean icon and ‘undisputed Calypso Queen of the world,’ Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis, popularly known as Calypso Rose.” The jukebox musical in four acts that attempts, within the scope and breadth of just over 40 calypsoes by Rose, to elaborate on her life, and career growth and development.


Spencer makes no excuses in insisting that the Best Village model was her preferred model for this musical: “I make no apology for situating (the production) in the original Trinbago Musical Theatre style – Best Village.” She has said previously that, “the best village competition was called ‘illegitimate theatre,” but that she “continued to crave the illegitimacy, a feeling that has inspired her whole career.” It worked here, with effective production and direction making song, dance, actress, and story gel smartly. Rose’s story, from childhood to adult, is told as a flashback sequence as she won the Victoire de la Musique award in 2017, the French equivalent to the Grammy.
The descriptive above, “light entertainment,” does not eschew the fact that the musical covers important facets of Rose’s life and career that resonate still today. Act I touches on the family dynamics of the rural, ultra-religious family with many offspring. Rose was from a family of 13 brothers and sisters, and was obligingly “adopted” by her uncle and aunt in Trinidad, to ease the tension. Her lifelong connection to her Spiritual Baptist grandmother, in the flesh and later in spirit, guides Rose’s growth and is a notable constant throughout the musical. Young actress Thara Howe takes on the role of pre-teen Rose with admirable confidence and ability, and succeeded in upstaging everyone with her excellent stagecraft. Hopefully, to be seen in future productions.
Act II sees a young adult Calypso Rose (Stacey Sobers) at Original Young Brigade Tent led by the Mighty Sparrow (Kearn Samuel) dealing with the misogyny and oft-expected hypersexuality of the machismo culture of calypso in the late 1960s and early 1970s when her career began to blossom. Her musical pushback via wickedly double entendre calypsoes like Banana and Sweet Pudding Man (1968), and Palet (1969) – the sweetness, and give and take of orality – came at a price as she was labelled by the church, women’s groups and the local newspapers of the time as the “Queen of Slackness” and “Queen of Smut.” Her sexuality was challenged in this era too, with Sparrow and others questioning “why she don’t have a man.” Coy, prissy or faint-hearted were not adjectives to describe Rose in this period. She knew what she wanted, and demanded it. Respect was earned.


Stacey Sobers is a revelation as an actor. Already known as a singer and calypsonian – 2018 National Women’s Action Committee (NWAC) National calypso queen and NCC Calypso Monarch finalist – she embodies Rose’s Tobago accent and stutter, and her body language effectively. Gordon Rohlehr wrote in 2004 that “Rose’s prolonged wailing mode of delivery, a possible inheritance from her Spiritual Baptist/Shouter roots, has now become the signature style of a significant number of current female soca singers.” That timbre and performance style are replicated almost to perfection.
Act II sees Rose’s rise to the top with Road March and Calypso Monarch wins in the mid-to-late 1970s effectively ending the Sparrow-Kitchener dyad that ruled calypso at the time. That resulted in jealousy, and migration to greener pastures up the islands as she now had to navigate not only the narrow silo of a Carnival season, but the increased hostility towards her dominance over a significant number of male calypsonians.
Her connection to Belize and Andy Palacio, and Garifuna culture including punta are explored, and that Belizean connection would prove to be fortuitous as her 2017 comeback award-winning album Far From Home would be produced by Belize-based producer Ivan Duran.
Act IV set in the 2010s, 30 years after Act III, sees her embrace by the world and especially, the French, towards relative calypso immortality that sees the decline of those major calypsonians who started their careers in the 1960s-70s. The musical exposes the wide oeuvre of Calypso Rose, and challenged the audience to recognise that there is more to Rose than Fire in Your Wire. Rose is a Caribbean Queen. The ease of the sing-along to a few calypsoes was a plus. Audiences should listen to our calypsonians’ canon in full to give an earned response. One step at a time.


The musical accompaniment directed by Michelle Henry was excellent, with optimum sound reinforcement that made the Central Bank Auditorium an apt calypso tent without jarring volumes. The technical aspect of the musical were handled with slickness that showed an improvement over reported opening night issues. Blocking, and movement on the stage, up and down and expanded into the aisles of the auditorium, and the set design including projection screens as backgrounds that established Rose’s Tobago home, her Trinidad home, and the wider space for school, the Original Young Brigade calypso tent, the yard, and performance stages in France and Coachella Festival gave the musical a lift above the memories of the simple folk theatre of yesteryear.
Ovations were given to the two Rose leads, and deservedly so. This play can and should be workshopped to iron out the kinks in production, and to enhance the quality of singing so necessary for any musical. Local validation is secure, and one assumes that this is a story for the world to discover. Queen of the Road: The Calypso Rose Musical, is an example of the style and quality of play, and by extension, calypso musical that can become a trope that makes sense in our creative industries, as it looks outward for validation and commercial expansion. (Source: Newsday, May 14, 2024)

Happy Birthday Rose! Trinidad and Tobago’s beloved Monarch, Calypso Rose,  celebrated her 84th Birthday in April.
Forty-six years ago, on February 5th 1978, Calypso Rose became the first woman to win the Calypso Monarch crown with the songs “Her Majesty” and “I Thank Thee”! She was also Calypso Queen from 1974 to 1978, making her the National title holder for five consecutive years—a feat that no calypsonian had accomplished before. In 1977, she also became the first woman to win the Road March title with her song “Gimme More Tempo.”
Tobago-born McCartha Linda Lewis, known widely as Calypso Rose, began sharing her musical talents with the world as a teenager. Over the course of her career, she has become a multi award-winning international recording artist, composing and recording over 800 songs. Through her music, she has brought audiences together and shone light on important social and political issues. In 2017, she was awarded the Order of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the highest symbol of honour presented to a citizen of T&T.
This photo shows Calypso Rose in performance from the 10th Edition of the “Ins & Outs of Trinidad and Tobago” magazine, published in 2010. It is part of the National Archives of Trinidad and Tobago Magazine Collection. (Source: National Archives of T&T, April 26, 2024) 

The voices of individuals, organisations and politicians spoke out yesterday on the loss so many people felt at the news of Denyse Plummer’s death.
The former calypsonian and pop and gospel singer died of cancer on August 27, at 69.
Her death led the nation to reflect on a woman who gave a voice and a face to the plurality of what it means to be a citizen of TT.
Her family confirmed her death on her Facebook page on Sunday, saying she was a wonderful mother, grandmother, wife and friend, and an exemplar to younger generations.
The family’s statement added that she would be missed by many, but would live on through her music and “the beautiful impressions she left on everyone she met.”
Initially, Plummer sang in bars and hotels before entering Calypso Fiesta in 1986.
Newsday's BC Pires recalled in his Thank God It’s Friday column in 2021, “What Skinner Park was for Denyse Plummer in 1986, the year she transmogrified from relatively upmarket Chaconia Inn lounge singer to decidedly downmarket calypsonian at the Calypso Monarch competition semifinals. Singing to the famously hostile Skinner Park crowd, she was booed, jeered and pelted with toilet paper (mainly for being fair-skinned, because both her songs were good).”
Despite the initial public reaction, Plummer’s persistence and dedication to the craft of calypso led her to become one of its treasured figures, and she won its major titles: National Calypso Queen, Young King and, in 2001, Calypso Monarch. In 2011 she was awarded the Hummingbird Medal.
In 2015 she became a born-again Christian and performed and recorded gospelypso with artistes like Michelle Sylvester. She also published her book Crossover that same year.
The National Carnival Commission’s tribute to Plummer on Monday said she was a true daughter of the soil who charted a journey that defined TT’s calypso landscape.
“Multitalented and gifted, Denyse blended music and social commentary, blessing us with well-known songs like Nah Leaving, Heroes, Fire and Woman is Boss. Without question or exception, she has left a legacy as one of our nation’s most talented ambassadors and cultural icons.”
Many of her fellow performers also paid tribute to her life and work.
Soca artiste Destra Garcia, in an Instagram post, saluted Plummer’s musical legacy, recalling Plummer’s 1988 hit Woman is Boss and her 2001 Nah Leaving.
Garcia said, “I salute queen mother. Thank you for being an inspiration and opening so many doors worldwide for the rest of us women, you helped pave the way, and taught us what the phrase Woman is Boss truly means, you fought a great fight.”
Chutney soca artiste Drupatee Ramgoonai posted a photo of herself with Plummer and said it had been a “wonderful experience” to share many stages with her, including calypso tents, fetes and tours.
Songwriter and composer Mark Loquan, who worked with Plummer on her 2003 and 2005 songs Identity and Frenzy, said it was a privilege to know her, and she crossed many barriers and boundaries to claim her success in the industry.
Loquan said he would miss her presence. They had communicated, after a long time, about a fundraising concert for her, Thankful, which was held on May 13.
“Imagine seeing her performing over so many years and getting to work several years with her in pan. I’m forever grateful for that rewarding experience. May she rest in eternal peace,” he added.
Bandleader and producer Carl “Beaver” Henderson shared some facts about Plummer’s start in the music industry and what it was like working with her for 47 years.
In a Facebook post, Beaver said before she started singing at Chaconia Inn, Maraval, she “honed her craft across the road...in a little known club called The Baron.”
He produced her first batch of recordings, including her first album and number one hit, You’re What I’ve Waited For, which he wrote for her.
“That single stayed on the charts at number one for 13 weeks. We won every award that year,” he recalled.
Beaver also remembered being on stage as her musical director at Skinner Park when she got her “baptism of fire.”
“No one fully understood your emotions in that moment except your husband Patrick and myself. I still marvel at the level of professionalism that you displayed immediately after.”
Plummer and Beaver shared many live performances over the years, many fetes and concerts – so many he could not count them.
“I also produced your last major iconic hit Nah Leaving (and that was a funny story by itself) which took you to winning the Calypso Monarch in 2001...
“So much time spent at your home with your parents and family, so many memories. I spoke to you a little over a month ago and we said our farewell without actually saying so…,” he said. "My sister from another mother, fly high and proud. You have served well."
Many other organisations and people shared condolences to Plummer’s family and their own personal story of what her life meant to them and the country. Among them were Pan Trinbago, the United National Congress,and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts.
UNC MP for Princes Town Barry Padarath recalled using a verse from Plummer’s Nah Leaving as he vied for a scholarship in 2001.
“I was also fortunate to view Denyse’s performance at the National Calypso Monarch final that year in the big yard coincidentally. In all my life, I never witnessed a performance as majestic as the one Denyse delivered that night. Denyse was the embodiment of everything that was good about TT, she had a tremendous impact on my life and today remains one of the best artistes of all time,” Padarath said in his tribute.
A post by the Tourism, Culture and the Arts Ministry said Plummer’s journey as a singer and legacy as a performer was punctuated with lessons in perseverance and dedication for people to follow.
“Her work exemplified how the power of music could affect positive change. We will certainly miss her vibrancy and passion, but we will forever be grateful for the joy her music and life brought to our hearts,” it said. (Source:  Newsday, August 29, 2023)