Executive member of the Dominica Calypso Association (DCA) Daryl Bobb has announced that 39 calypsonians have been registered to compete in the Calypso eliminations scheduled to take place on the hardcourt of the Windsor Park Sports Stadium on Saturday, January 11, 2025. Bobb, who was a guest on the Creole Heartbeat Program with host Cultural Ambassador Leroy ‘Wadix’ Charles, recently encouraged the public to turn out in large numbers to support the event.
This weekend’s eliminations will be the first show to start the 2025 Calypso season.
“Thirty-nine calypsonians have been registered for the eliminations,” he said. “Actually, it’s 41 registrants but out of that 39 are for the eliminations.”
He continued, “Some of them will include some very interesting names because we have some people returning to the competition after several years and some of them will include Scrunter, Jamma B, Chris B, General Natty, an actual veteran on the scene. Then you will have the likes of The Lord Karessah, Lady S, Sour-Sour, Bingo, Luscious, Mystrie…”
“The eliminations have a lot of value and people should come out to the eliminations,” Bobb said. “That is what we are pushing.”
He continued, “Come out and support your calypso, come out and support those you may never see throughout the rest of the competition. For some guys, this is their 15 [minutes] of fame…”
Bobb pointed out that at present-day calypso is the only genre of music that carries a heavy weight, “in terms of our education, who we are, where we came from and the culture of singing about a system, is something that began on the slave plantation…”
Furthermore, he commented that as the competition progresses, more space is required, but early in the season, attendees can expect ample room.
“The Calypso Finals become a bit cramped because it’s really the most-attended show during the Carnival season,” he stated. “But, for the eliminations, it is comfortable enough…”
Meanwhile, Bobb said that the Calypso scene in Dominica is facing several challenges. Part of that includes securing a larger venue to host the Calypso Finals.
“We have our challenges obviously, we would like to give people a larger venue so that they can enjoy the show,” he explained. “What we really would like to do is give them as much seating as possible and to sort of prepare a VIP that they can benefit from. And because of the constraint of the venue, we cannot really do that, so you find a lot of people choose to stay home.”
With the current advent of streaming, Bobb noted that some people find it more comfortable to stay home and watch the show on television or their devices.
Bobb said the association looks forward to having a reasonably large crowd based on the interests that have been expressed in the competition thus far.
“From there, we move to the quarter-finals [competition] on February 1,” he stated.
The start time for the competition is 8:00P M and the entrance fee is only EC$20.
Bobb noted that there will be no advanced sales of tickets. Patrons can only enter by paying at the gate.
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