By: Calver Lee Swanston
The yard of NEPAC came alive on the night of Friday, June 21, 2013 with calypsonians from St. Kitts & Nevis and Trinidad as part of the first calypso tent show for Culturama 2013.
The local calypsonians came to debut their songs for this year’s festival, while the calypsonians from St Kitts and Trinidad came to entertain the persons in attendance.
The night started with local calypsonian, ‘the Enforcer’. He opened in grand style with his new song, ‘Nothing for me no?’. He was well received by the audience. As a matter of fact, he was the only singer of the night from which the audience demanded an encore performance.
King Meeko followed up with an outstanding performance. Although he did not showcase any new songs, he had the crowd jumping to the all time favorite ‘Rough me Up’.
Then it was time for lone calypsonian from St. Kitts, Lord Cut to perform. In an effort to keep the momentum going with the spectators, they asked Lord Cut for a ‘little extempore’ about the local politics, and he willingly obliged.
The first Trinidadian calypsonian, Singing Skatey then took to the stage. From the start Skatety had the ladies of all age groups melting with his dynamic voice. He demanded that they all got to their feet and they did so happily.
Then the reigning calypso king of Trinidad and Tobago, Pink Panther then took to the stage to make his presentation. He had everyone in stitches with his songs, ‘Leadership’ and ‘Laughing’. He also paid tribute to the late great legendary calypsonian, Lord Kitchener with the calypso anthem, ‘Sugar Boom-Boom’. There was a rousing standing ovation at the end of his performance.
At the end of the night the audience was so satisfied that they were quick to ask when would be the next calypso tent.
The turnout was small and this may be attributed to the fact that there were other social engagements being staged on the same night.