2 women among National Calypso finalists

Janice Augustine

LAST Sunday night, she was one of three women to perform in the semi-final round of the National Calypso competition and on Carnival Sunday night, she will be one of two who will be competing to win the prestigious title of National Calypso Monarch for Carnival 2014.

Promising that she would put out her best as her objective was to win enough points from the judges that would take her to the final level, Janice Augustine, who is a member of the Kingdom Calypso Tent, was among the few who portrayed her song during the performance.

At the end of the show, her efforts were not in vain as her ability to deliver “No Political Commentary” and “Don’t Deliver” earned her the right to boast as one of the ten calypsonians who will be hoping to dethrone the 2013 winner – Keturah George.

The other woman calypsonian who made it to the big stage is Jermaine “Superstar” Simon, while the others are Ajamu and Scholar, who have both won the National Monarch title seven times; Sour Serpent; Wizard; Mr X; Sheldon Douglas; Randy Issac; Jason “Big J” Joseph; while Rootsman Kelly is the standby.

Scholar

A win for either Scholar or Ajamu will bring an end to the equal number of times either one of them has won the National Calypso Monarch title and thus, many Carnival observers believe that it will be an “all-out calypso battle” between the two, who are experienced and veteran performers.

Following Sunday night’s result, there were some who openly expressed their concern about the finalists, while some debated the naming of Rootsman Kelly as a standby instead of among the final competitors. Cultural Ambassador, Francis Urias Peters, called for the scrutinising of the score sheet. He said that though the judges’ decision is final, he felt that there is a need to expose and explain the entire process of judging a calypso performance and how the scores were awarded for each performance.