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Winner of the Scotiabank Junior Calypso Monarch, Summa Sargeant, in the 8-12 category, accepts her winning trophy from Minister of Culture, Sports and Youth, Stephen Lashley.

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Chad ‘De MC’ Montplaisir emerged victorious in the 13-18 age category after a winning performance of ‘Outta Love’ at the Kensington Oval on Saturday night.

JUNIOR MONARCHS CROWNED

Summa, De MC reign supreme

 

THE competition was fierce at the Scotiabank Junior Calypso Monarch Finals at the Kensington Oval on Saturday night.
 
After the judges’ points were tallied, eight-year-old Summa Sargeant emerged victorious in the 8-12 category with “Go Away Recession” with 418 points; and Chad “De MC” Montplaisir walked away with 450 points and the 13-18 title with “Outta Love”. However, it was no easy feat as all of the finalists showed tremendous poise, confidence and showmanship addressing subjects ranging from the economy, HIV, violence as well as the significance of Barbados’ 50th anniversary of Independence.
 
Summa, a Blackman and Gollop Primary School student, captivated the audience with a child’s perspective of the recession, explaining how the economic crisis is affecting her way of life, where ice-cream for example, is now just a dream and other treats are a thing of the past. She beat out Kiara “Star Diamond” King, who expressed her aspiration to one day send positive messages through calypso as a “’Calypso Queen” like Alison Hinds, Rita and many others. Coming in third with 390 points was the lone male in the 8-13 section Emari “Brown Star” Browne  with “Train We Up” and fourth was Dondria “A-Lee-aah” Forde with “Too Young” where she offered some potentially life saving advice to a young girl who was living her life in the fast lane.
 
After the first half of the competition, the energised and highly supportive crowd was anxiously awaiting the older competitors and were instantly blown away by the first out of the blocks and eventual winner De MC, who set the bar extremely high for the other competitors.
 
Escorted on stage by a rotund police officer, De MC started his performance in the courtroom where he lamented that he was never encouraged to change his wayward ways and that everything that he did was done out of love. In a split second his court attire was removed and he was dressed in a prison uniform and standing in jail, regretting all of his negative life choices. His interest in performing arts was evident as his presentation was nothing short of a dramatic piece which resonated with the crowd who gave the 
multitalented 17-year-old a rousing round of applause at the end of his performance.
 
Arguably the extra effort in presentation though only worth five points, was enough to push De MC over the top of 18-year-old Raheem Taylor, as a mere two points separated the two talented calypsonians. Raheem with his rendition of “My Story” recalled his fumble last year and losing his chance at victory after forgetting the words to his song in the finals. He challenged that instead of being angry with him for forgetting his words, persons should have been concerned about more pressing matters, such as the cell tax and water 
outages.
 
Teri “Sparkle T” Williams-Niles walked away with the third spot with “Happy Birthday”, bringing a cultural spectacle to the stage in light of Barbados’ 50th anniversary celebrations. Her patriotic song which garnered 440 points, was named “Best Soca Song” in the 13-18 category too.
 
Rickardo “RJ” Reid revealed some of the secrets that can be heard in a “Barbershop” including some pertinent current affairs to take fourth prize. Other impressive performances included Raanan Hackett with “Pick it Up” who tackled the contentious wrapper issue and Asher “Dynamo” Murrell with “Nice and Slow”. Quinn “Quinn P” touched on the worrying cases of sexual abuse with “De Call”, and Kymorhi “De Overcomer” Trotman brought the dark reality of HIV to life in his performance of “Beauty I’m the Beast”, using facial 
prosthetics to transform his appearance.
 
The appreciative audience was also treated to a performance by 2016 T&T Junior Calypso Monarch in the 8-12 category, Sharissa Camejo with “Our Blessed Land” and performances from past winners of Junior Monarch competitions as the crowd anxiously awaited the judges’ decision. (JH)

 

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