Three newcomers move past elimination round; DCA President dubbed show a success

(L-R) Ridge, Myka and Shanice

President of the Dominica Calypso Association (DCA), Davidson ‘Observer’ Victor has hailed the efforts of all in the “success” of the first ever virtual calypso eliminations.

Judges made quick work of bringing the over four-hour long calypso eliminations show to a close advancing 15  finalists to the second leg of the competition.

On the evening of January 22, 2022, 39 calypsonians gave their all in the hopes of being selected by the judges to move on to the Semi-final round – due to financial constraints there will be no quarter finals this year.

This year brought old faces back to the stage as well as a few newbies who sought favor with the judges.

Making their calypso debut and moving on to the Semi-finals were, bouyon artist Coleridge Bell ,stage name Ridge, with his witty rendition “Pooh See”, as well as Sixth Form Sisserou Singer Shanice Langford ,stage name Shanice, and former Miss Dominica contestant Ameka “Myka” Cognet  who both delivered compelling renditions of their calypsos “Sister to Sister” and “Hostage”.

Returning after a short absence were Jamaal ‘Black Diamond’ Lloyd  and his father Joey ‘Explosion’ Lloyd who also secured spots in the Semi-finals.

Raymond ‘Vigilante’ Vigilant also made his return to the calypso scene but failed to find favor with the judges.

From the songs which debuted at the elimination, no sector of society was left untouched. However the year in politics and COVID-19 were common themes in the competition.

Others moving on to the Semis are Mystrie who appears to be among this year’s crowd favourites with “Coco Stick”, Soul Puss with his song Living “Under Siege”, Mighty D with his calypso entitled “We Bawling”, Jenius- “Nou Pa Peh”, Lady Esse -“Wash Your Hands” and Haxey- “Dey Vex”.

Other Semi-finalists include, Trendsetter who sang of his love for big figures with his entry “Figures”, Intruder with “Creole Speaking”, Triumph who in his calypso is calling for the Arawak House of Culture to be renamed after Alwin Bully- “Re-christen Arawak” and De Healer with “Cast No Stone”.

While the 15 Semi-finalists were called in random order, the three reserves who were announced in the order of their placements are, Mighty Omee, followed by newcomer Kendra ‘Luscious’ Stephens and Inciter.

The DCA President, who spoke to Dominica News Online (DNO), stated that the association is elated that it could deliver a semblance of calypso to Dominicans.

“In this time of COVID where so many things are uncertain we are just grateful that we were able to come through with our first stage of the competition which is the eliminations,” Victor stated. “It was a purely virtual event meaning that we could not have any audience; [the] only persons that were allowed were those people who are actually partaking in the show so we wanted to give back something to the public so we decided to have the eliminations free of charge.”

While he says the DCA is grateful for the contributions it has received thus far, Victor revealed that the competitions ahead are still restricted due to the association’s financial hurdles caused by the pandemic.

“We have a lot of challenges, given the whole COVID and the restrictions and protocols and all these things that we have to battle with. On top of that, we still have the financial aspect we have to deal with because Calypso is something that generates revenue from shows and it’s through the patronage of our events that we actually generate our income,” he explained.

The DCA president continued, “ If we don’t have the crowd to come to the show and pay to come to the show, that in itself, tells you that is going to be a serious challenge for us.”

Notwithstanding the fact that competitions have been scaled down to meet certain expenses, Victor says there is still a lot to undergo financially.

“We are just hoping to see how things can work out. We have our sponsors who are usually with us and we hope that they can come through for us and that more people can continue to come on board and sponsor given the fact that we are trying to do something in a time when nothing should be done,” Victor remarked.

He congratulated the calypsonians for the quality of their songs this year and encouraged them to remain steadfast in keeping the artform alive.

The next leg of the competition will be the Semi-finals which is carded for February 12. There the 15 calypsonians selected from the elimination will meet last year’s finalists and will compete for one of the 14 spots in hopes of dethroning the Virtual Calypso King De Bobb on February 26.

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4 Comments

  1. Mention
    January 28, 2022

    DNO, why are the saying semis next? I thought is quarter finals after eliminations. Enlighten me. Is it because of the covid the choose to have it this way?

    ADMIN: Thank you for pointing that out. Due to financial constraints participants will be going straight to the semi finals this year.

  2. Kevin
    January 28, 2022

    Congratulations to all the newcomers.I am especially rooting for ameka.

  3. mine
    January 27, 2022

    Three years you all so called judges have robbing a visually impaired person they should be ashamed of themselves. WHY.

    Hot debate. What do you think? Thumb up 6 Thumb down 4

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