Fight among calypsonians spoiled it this year- Patron
“Just take a look around and you can see what I am talking about,” said a patron who claimed to be a fan of the music form. She was drawing attention to the scant turnout of person at the competition this year.
“Calypso is a thing that people come out to a lot here but persons are upset with the nasty battle going on between Chico B, Shereen and Sistah Joyce. That make sense?” asked the patron.
War of words
The war of words expressed in this year’s calypsos sang by 2016-2017 Monarch Roland “Chico B” Veira “Outsider” and “Licks” saw him responding to claims that two “Born Here” Virgin Islanders, Shereen “Queen Shereen” Flax-Charles and Joyce “Sistah Joyce” Searles attacked him because he is not a “Born here”.
It was in 2016 that Flax-Charles and others raised questions about what was said to be a breach of the rules for having Chico B enter the competition. This surfaced after the fact that the former monarch was crowned. The issue was that he was not living in the territory for at least two years before entering the competition. That’s the rules of the competition.
Searles, who came in as the 2nd runner up in this year’s competition, added a verse to her song which challenged Chico B, who she claimed in her song to have sent threats to her. She responded with “lyrics cannot hold me and I want him to know that I am the Vybz Kartel of Calypso…”
While Flax-Charles was not in the competition this year, citing that she had to first be a mother and set her priorities right by taking care of medical issues with one of her children, she did take to the stage as a guest artist on the very night. She made comments like, “You have to stand for something or you will fall for nothing”, “Right is right and wrong is wrong”, “I am not afraid to speak my truth”, “Yall think I afraid to come on this stage” as he pelted her stones back at Chico B.
They spoiled the competition
But it was fans of the music that seemed to have felt the brunt of it. “They spoiled the competition this year,” said Melroy Boyce. “Kaiso is Kaiso, yes, but they took it too far. It was clearly not fun for them but a war in Calypso and we need to see them done it or Calypso will no longer make money out here.”
Speaking with this news site, Chico B said he kept with the spirit of Calypso. “I have no hard feelings towards anyone, I just do Calypso because I love it and my lyrics did what Calypso does, that’s all about it.”
“They born here and I live here, they or rather the country needs me and I need the country so we as a people all have to live together in one love and not fight and that’s the message I sent and that’s done right there. One love to my sisters, not hate, only love.”
Others expressed that the war on stage had an effect on the judging. “In this case I think the judging would have been different if we had judges who were not familiar with the issues and could have isolated themselves and judged fairly. Yes the King (King Paido) did extremely well but I know Joyce and Chico were extremely good and the judging by a more neutral group would have seen a different outcome,” said Boyce, while adding that King Paido might have still won but other prizes would have been differently distributed.
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21 Responses to “Fight among calypsonians spoiled it this year- Patron”
want to be on stage TRYING to sound ALL royal and conscious with that double-edged tongue ...
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