The Mighty Gabby standing proudly with his trophy with the Acting Prime Minister Freundel Stuart (right) and Minister of Culture, Steve Blackett.
Gabby grabs it! Veteran is new Calypso Monarch
8/1/2010
By Khalil Goodman
ANTHONY “Gabby” Carter has grabbed his ninth Pic-O-De Crop crown.
Early Saturday morning, the veteran calypsonian was announced the winner of the 2010 banks/LIME Pic-O-De Crop competition – although it was not without controversy.
Gabby took the title with the moving ‘Haiti’ and Latin rhythms-influenced ‘Ole Ashae’. However, his victory did not go down well with the all of the crowd. For the second time in less than a week, a winner in this year’s Crop Over competition was booed by some fans.
While he was presented with the winner’s trophy by Acting Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, and later, the keys to his new fully loaded Ford Focus car, many members of the crowd shuffled out of the Kensington Oval. Others stayed to call support as he performed ‘Ole Ashae’ again.
Despite this, Gabby was thankful to fans for their support, saying “Thank you for all your help. Thank you for your friendship. Thank you for all your love. You know all, all, all praises to Jehovah you know. All praises Jehovah . . . I could not do it without Mike Sealy [who arranged the two songs]. I just want to thank him; thank him for his help and his love, his commitment. His long hours in his studio, everything.”
Level of competition high
Gabby beat two-time monarch Adrian “AC” Clarke into second place, and also defending monarch RPB, who finished third.
There were two tied positions this year with pre-show favourite Colin Spencer and his Cave Shepherd All Stars tent-mate Crystal “Crystal” Cummins-Beckles tied for seventh position.
Anderson “Blood” Armstrong and Terencia “TC” tied for fifth place.
While some purists would have debated over the variety and level of material this year, the level of performance from all competitors was high.
TC took her controversial win at the Sweet Soca competition and used it lyrically in her song “Stimulus” which got a lot of vocal support from this crowd. Her diction was perfect this year.
Cummins-Beckles, in her first time at the finals, had many saying she was the dark horse who would be taking all home. She too had crystal clear diction and vocals.
Fourth place John King seemed to have been suffering from some voice strain, but still managed to perform both his songs very well.
Clarke brought a brand new song entitled ‘No Plastic Bag Day’, which got a decent response but seemed to flatten competition with his ‘Crowd Response’, which featured several new lines and more energy than at the semi-finals.
Perhaps RPB can feel some solace in the fact that he managed to get major crowd response and the traditional sea of waving red plastic bags by the crowd when he performed both ‘Signs’ and ‘La La’.
The final positions in descending order and points are as follows: Gabby (441.5), AC (424), RPB (418.5), John King (413.5), Blood and TC (408), Colin Spencer and Crystal Cummins-Beckles (407.5), Sheldon Hope (400.5), and Tassa (369).
