Recognising chutney's role in Carnival on Friday night, George Singh successfully staged the 2023 Chutney Soca Monarch competition at Skinner Park in San Fernando. Daddy Chinee (Ricardo Melville) took the crown, with nine-year-old Katelin Sultan winning as queen, the youngest competitor in the competition's history. In challenging the market appeal of Machel Montano's 40 concert,
Audiences destroy singers
Part 6
IN a Carnival partly defined by virtual calypso shows, it’s difficult to picture just how much of a role audiences have played in the history of calypso. An enthusiastic crowd calling for encores can boost a calypsonian’s popularity, but audiences have also been known to destroy a calypsonian’s season and even damage a calypsonian’s reputation.
“I remember when I was a student going home to Guyana from UWI in Mona, I stopped off in Trinidad in 1968 and went to a calypso tent in the Palladium,” says calypso expert and former UWI English professor Dr Gordon Rohlehr.