To add to his long list of accolades, Slinger “Mighty Sparrow” Francisco will now be immortalised at the Caribbean Wax Museum in Norman Centre, Bridgetown, Barbados.
The life-like depiction of the ‘Jean and Dinah’ singer will be unveiled tomorrow on the premises of The Commercial Credit Division of Consolidated Finance Co. Ltd, Barbados.
The unveiling is a merged effort of the Trinidad and Tobago Association of Barbados, Corporate & Commercial Credit Division of Consolidated Finance Co. Ltd and the Caribbean Wax Museum. ​The Grenadian-born Francisco gained the title “Calypso King” of the world through his music. Since 1956, he has remained the only calypsonian to have won the T&T Calypso Monarch title more than anyone else—eight times. He also took the Road March title on several occasions. Fransisco also took his music to the US, Europe and even Africa.
For his contribution to the cultural and musical landscape of T&T and taking the art form to the world, the 85-year-old was bestowed several honours, including an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies in 1987, the honourary title of Chief of the Yorubas, Chaconia Gold Medal, Order of the Republic of T&T and the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Of this latest honour, Francisco yesterday told Guardian Media it was a very nice thing for the Caribbean Wax Museum to honour him in such a way. He said he was made aware of this five months ago and had no objection to it.
“I have been doing my thing for a very long time. It is good to see this…I wish I could be there to see it,” he said through laughter via a telephone conversation from his US-based home.
Asked whether more needed to be done in T&T honour its creatives, Francisco answered, “I think we should continue doing these things.”
Meanwhile, Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organisation (TUCO) president Lutalo “Brother” Resistance” Masimba labelled the unveiling as “timely.”
Masimba said given that the honour has come during the celebration of Calypso History Month adds a certain “quality” to the celebration and fitted in nicely with its theme—Calypso Beyond Boundaries and Borders. He said TUCO was very pleased with the recognition of one of the Caribbean’s greatest calypsonians of all times.
In an email interview, directors at the Caribbean Wax Museum said, “As with everywhere else in the world where Caribbean people have settled, the Mighty Sparrow set the standard against which all calypsonians are judged. Barbados’s Mighty Gabby is in many ways a protegee.”
The wax figure of Fransico will join other regional artistes in the soca arena like Barbados’ Alison Hinds and Lil Rick, Barbadian-born US-based R&B singer Rihanna, as well as historical revolutionaries like Che Guevera and Fidel Castro.
Source:  T&T Guardian, Oct 30, 2020

Swallow passed away on Friday surrounded by family at his home in Willikies after suffering from a prolonged illness. He was 78.
His death has plunged the calypso fraternity across the region into mourning.
The Trinbago Unified Calypsonian Organisation, the governing body for calypso in Trinidad and Tobago paid tribute to the veteran stating that he has been recognised for contributing nearly 60 years to the soca and calypso art form.
"During this time the vibrant, fiery and pulsating rhythms of his soca hits have created frenzy wherever and whenever he performs," TUCO said.
A four-time  Calypso Monarch and five-time Road March winner in Antigua and Barbuda, King Swallow won over audiences in T&T with songs such as 'Fire in the Backseat', 'Subway Jam', 'Party In Space' and 'Satan Coming Down'.
King Swallow was awarded the Order of Merit (Gold), and the Grand Cross of Princely Heritage during terms of governance under the Labour Party. Each award was conferred in recognition of his sterling contribution to the calypso art form.

SOCA songstress Nailah Blackman is now eligible to win a Grammy. The 22-year-old performer announced on her Instagram on Saturday she was invited to join the Recording Academy.
The Recording Academy is responsible for the Grammys Awards. A person cannot win or vote for the Grammys unless they are a part of the academy. This year, more than 2,300 music professionals were invited into the coveted membership.
“This is the next step, the whole process I set off on three years ago. It has always been our goal to win a Grammy. This is just one step towards that goal…. I am now eligible to be nominated for a Grammy and I am now eligible to vote to get someone nominated for a Grammy,” Blackman told Newsday on Monday.
In 2018 she was flown out by record executives from Def Jam Recording to meet with them.
She was nominated by label reps from Universal Republic Records for membership in the Recording Academy.
“I’ve been working on music for the sole purpose to make music for life, make music for Trinidad, make music for Carnival, make music for the entire world. Where we see our music going is the international realm.”
This membership, Blackman said, was the third phase of her three-year plan to get international recognition. She’s been working on music not just for Carnival, but for the people who’ve never heard of Carnival, never heard of TT and never heard of soca music.
“We’ve been creating this music to get into those new markets.”
She’s been playing around with her sounds and apart from her soca songs she’s been creating a hybrid of soca with Afrobeats, reggaeton and pop music.


“We have been sparing on when and how we release things. When I start back to release music, we are not going to stop. It is just going to be song after song. To keep the momentum going into 2021. When and how everything will be released is still in motion, but we are well prepared in terms of music.”
She and her team are not sure if they are going to release a new album or singles.
She’s also been quietly working on collaborations with international artists. She was hesitant to name drop many people except for Adekunle Gold, a prominent Nigerian singer.
“We did a video together during this whole lockdown, in separate locations, so that video should be coming out this month. That’s the next big international project you all can look forward to.”
She had another collab with a US artist she is keeping under wraps.
“They are also quite popular as well, and they would bring a whole new market to me. We are throwing in everything I’m doing in an international direction, but still staying true to soca music.
With the borders closed and physical distancing ensuring interactive performances for musicians being placed on hold, Blackman got a chance to rest, recuperate and also used the time to work on her music.
In the past three years, Blackman has been super busy pumping out music and performing across the globe. She’s flown to more than 46 places including Jamaica, Guyana, St Lucia, New York City, Miami, Boston, Vancouver, Canada, Suriname, Belize, Paris, London and Australia.
“I felt like I needed time to recuperate. I’ve been going like a machine for the last three years. I’ve spent more time on a plane than anywhere else. It was important to regroup, find myself and have a direction because I know the next time I connect with my fans, it would not be at the same level that I did before.”
Though she’s had to physically distance herself from her fans, she’s kept in close communication with
them through Instagram. She posts frequently to the platform for her 368,000 followers.
“People feel as if they always want to see an artist perform, but they only get to know the artists as artists but not when they are home, what are they doing and their family.
“Over lockdown, I’ve connected a lot more with my fans on the internet a lot more than when I was just performing all the time. I think they are seeing a different side of me. It has brought us a lot closer.” Source: Newsday, July 14, 2020

CALYPSO ROSE, one of TT's most distinguished international artistes, has received yet another prestigious international award. On Thursday, the 79-year-old was named Officer of Arts and Humanities, on behalf of the French Government, at the residence of the French ambassador to TT.
The award is regarded as one of the highest honours among the four French Ministerial Orders of Merit. She is said to be a well-known name in France and has previously won awards in the country, including the world album of the year award at the Victoire de la Musique awards in 2017, the Grand Prize for world music at Sacem Grand Prix and the 2016 artist award for world music by Womex at the 18th Womex Awards in Spain.
The ever-smiling Calypso Rose, whose real name is Linda McCartha Sandy-Lewis, was present at the embassy to receive the award, despite coming off a typically hectic travel schedule. She received a medal and certificate to validate her most recent achievement, which was delivered by the French ambassador to TT Serge Lavroff, who said he, like much of France, is a fan of the veteran singer/songwriter. Source: Newsday, Feb 20, 2020

Recognising the importance of the country’s national instrument, Government has approved TT$5 million for the establishment of a Steelpan Manufacturing Grant Fund Facility.
Speaking at a media conference on Tuesday, Trade and Industry Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon said the financial support will provide steelpan manufacturers with the means to acquire machinery, equipment, software, tools, raw material and training.
The funding will be made available in tranches of up to $250,000, but no more than $1,000,000 per entity.
Gopee-Scoon said Government was intent on seeing the country’s national instrument flourish at the global level with input from industry experts, tapping into the industry’s potential for job creation, increased foreign exchange earnings and economic diversification.
She urged manufacturers and tuners interested in stepping up their operations to take advantage of the initiative.
The Minister noted that the funding would assist in this regard, encouraging the modernisation and the improvement of the quality of steelpan manufacturing operations, ultimately bolstering the export product.
“We are confident that the successful implementation of the Steelpan Manufacturing Grant Fund Facility will lead to improvements in the production and tuning processes and enhance adherence to global quality standards. It will also be an important platform towards sustainable employment and expansion of exports of the only acoustic musical instrument developed in the twentieth century,” she said. 
Gopee-Scoon revealed that the MIC Institute of Technology (MIC-IT) will be responsible for administering this Facility due to its experience in technical and vocational training in steelpan manufacturing.
MIC-IT in October 2019 launched a customised steelpan manufacturing programme focusing on knowledge and practical skills in steelpan construction, tuning and fabrication.
The institute also runs a course in Mechanical Engineering Technology with Steelpan Manufacturing which provides training in steelpan construction and tuning, science of sound, sound engineering, music, welding and fabrication, mechanical technology and practical experiences on the varying pan manufacturing and tuning equipment.
MIC-IT Chairman Clement Imbert, who has a long history of involvement in the development of the steelpan, said the institute’s programmes are oversubscribed with very dropouts.
Minister Gopee-Scoon is due to meet with stakeholders to explain the process and identify any additional needs or concerns of industry leaders as she said Government is working to reach the “small man” with the funding.
A call for proposals will be published in newspapers and on the websites of the MTI, affiliated agencies and the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).
Source: The Loop, Jan 14, 2020

​Six months before the #MeToo movement went viral in October 2017, women across the Caribbean were united by a feminist anthem celebrating their right to party without being manhandled. During the annual carnivals in Trinidad and Tobago, women danced through the streets in bikinis, singing Calypso Rose’s “Leave Me Alone”: “Boy don’t touch me!/ I there in the party/ Enjoying my body/ With my friends I am happy/ So leave me alone!” 
Their act was political. Local activists said that sexual assaults on women had been tolerated as part of the carnival scene for too long. The previous year Japanese musician Asami Nagakiya was strangled at the Port of Spain carnival. When her bikini-clad body was found in a park the following day, mayor Raymond Tim Kee claimed her clothing had led to her (still unsolved) murder. “The woman has the responsibility to ensure that [she is] not abused.” he told the press. “It’s a matter of, if she was still in her costume – I think that’s what I heard – let your imagination roll.”
Seventy-nine-year old Calypso Rose – delighted to be playing at the Womad festival this week – has no patience with such victim blaming. “Carnival is to be loose! To be free! We have to let everybody know that women should not be walking behind the men any more. Women should be walking in front!” she tells me with a broad smile via a video link from France. “I know it is a scary time. But I am here to tell women: don’t be afraid. Enjoy yourselves!”
Despite a series of heart attacks and one bout of cancer, the calypso queen is still an electrifying performer and engaged interviewee, regularly breaking off an anecdote mid-sentence to lean towards the camera and sing a snatch of one of her 800 songs, big pearls swinging from her ears. 
Calypso Rose was born McCartha Linda Lewis in Tobago in 1940. “We had no electricity and there was no music, no nothing to hear at all,” she tells me. “My dad was a preacher and my mum had 11 living children. I was the fifth. It was a lot for her, and I was adopted at the age of nine by my uncle’s wife and went to live in her big house in Trinidad. Suddenly, I was the only child. My auntie – Miss Robbie – gave me all the love she had. I could sit in peace, suck my fingers and play with my pikkie [short, Afro textured] hair!” Miss Robbie also loved calypso music: a genre descended from the west African “kaiso”, sung by the slaves imported to work on the sugar plantations from the 17th century onwards. Under the guise of jaunty melodies, it was used to mock slave masters and communicate. After the abolition of slavery in 1873, calypso music dominated the annual carnivals celebrated in the days before Lent.
“My auntie, she had all the calypso records,” says Rose. “She would grind up the gramophone and tell me: dance, dance, dance! On Sunday night she’d take me down to the clubs where they would be singing and moving until Monday morning, oh my God it was fantastic! I was on the roof! My auntie would be wearing her shorts and we were all just wiggling the bamsee [bottom] left-right, left-right.”
Rose was just 13 years old when she wrote her first calypso: fighting for justice from the get-go. “In the market one Sunday morning, we saw a guy run up and snatch the glasses from off the eyes of a vendor. We yelled, ‘Thief! Thief Thief!’ Well I went home and wrote ‘Glass Thief’ to warn Tobagonian boys not to be like those naughty Trinidadian boys.” It was the first calypso denouncing sexual inequality. Her second song was inspired by the Can Can dance craze: “I sang about the girls who can can!”
But she was writing and singing against the grain. Women were not welcome on stage in the calypso tents of the 1950s. “When I began entertaining at 15,” she says, “They said: ‘Why are you singing calypso? It does not belong to a woman. Calypso belongs to the men.’ Well, I told them the good Lord has given me the inspiration to create and I will not be like the foolish virgin in the Bible. I will not bury my talent in the soil! I will be jiggy jiving! I fought the battle as a woman and I won.”
Rose came of age as the world began to embrace calypso. In 1956, Harry Belafonte’s album Calypso spent 31 weeks at the top of the Billboard chart, becoming the first album by a solo artist in history to sell more than one million copies. In 1963, Rose became the first woman to win the annual Calypso King competition with a song called “Cooperation”. Four years later, she was on tour in the US with Bob Marley. 
“He was such a spiritual man,” she says. “He never lifted his guitar off the stage without putting his head onto the wall and praying. He loved to dance to my songs.” she says. “We learned a lot from each other… except the smoking. I did not learn that. When he was smoking he would try to reassure me saying: ‘No threaten, no threaten.’ He meant: don’t be afraid. And I am lucky that I have never been afraid. The men have always respected me a great lot.” 
But being barred from the Calypso King contest on gender grounds did cause Rose to quit the scene in the early 1970s. “I went to New York and studied criminology,” she says. “But those steel pans were still playing in my head, they sent me crazy! I kept running from explosives classes to write lyrics in the restroom. And when they changed the title from Calypso King to Calypso Monarch in 1978, I came back for my crown.”
Rose still lives in New York, from where she is proud to support the many waves of female calypsonians to have followed in her wake. “I swung back the door and welcome them in,” she says. “Come in! Come in!” She praises a new generation of young artists such as Nailah Blackman and stresses that they must continue to sing up for the women’s rights that are threatened by the current US administration.
“That Donald Trump does not like nobody, not even himself," she says. "He should shut his mouth up. Put a clip on his tongue. He should listen to my song, ‘Human Race’. Those Mexican children in cages at the border? It is a pain in my heart.”
Featuring no-nonsense lines like “Nobody cannot say this for true/ Who the hell descended from who”, the anti-racist anthem “Human Race” appears, alongside “Leave Me Alone”, on Rose’s 2016 album Far From Home, written with French artist Manu Chao. “Can you believe that I won a French Grammy Award for that record?” she grins. “I’m in Lyon now, on my way to the stage in Barcelona and then your Womad.”
Rose says the thrill of performing has only increased with time: “It’s great to sing, it’s great to see the fans. Especially those young-young boys winding it in front of the stage. Oh my God! I’m still enjoying the music, I’m still enjoying me.”
Source: Independent, July 2019