Development of youth in calypso ‘always a good thing’

The development of young people in Calypso is always a good thing for this particular genre of music and something which Ian ‘iWeb’ Webster stated that he would gladly encourage.

He said that they had some young people entering the semi-finals in the senior level Calypso competitions and the Junior Monarch in itself continue to do really well with singers making the successful transition from the junior level to the senior level.

“Yeah, for the semi-finals we had a number of persons involved in the semi-finals. That is always a good thing. You know the Junior Monarch has been doing pretty well. A number of their contestants have been making that transition and we have been seeing that in the last few years happening with Aziza winning last year, who would have done well in Junior Monarch. So that certainly is a good sign for the future.”

In addition, the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) continues to assist in the further development of these young artists by offering them initiatives such as workshops in song composition.

“I know that the NCF is working extremely hard in terms of getting the younger artists now to develop their skills in terms of writing and that is also something that we have there to look forward to. So I think that it is a good sign in terms of the Calypso genre. We also look forward now to seeing a number of those younger artists and Calypsonians hone and develop their writing skills.”

Webster, who is also an educator, said that he also aims to play his part in the development of the young people in the classroom.

“But there have been songs and there have been messages, I mean that is one aspect of it. As an educator I always try to instill certain values in my children. They may not always like it (but) at the end of the day, I am there as a teacher and not as their friend. I am their teacher and my responsibility is to model behaviours; to instruct them academically yes; but also to teach them about the core values in life and that kind of stuff. So for me personally, that is how I tend to, you know, impact the (next) generation.”

Meanwhile, as an artist, he also ensures that he instills positive messages in the songs that he writes.

“Well, I have been trying to do so in terms of the material that I sing. All of my material is not necessarily funny and entertaining. There is a song like ‘For the Souls’ that addresses the issue of road safety, you know. But people tend to gravitate towards the more entertaining stuff.”

At the time, the 2017 Monarch was speaking to the media recently after he officially collected the keys to his Nissan jeep that he won in the 2017 Courtesy Mount Gay Pic-O-De-Crop calypso competition. (PJT).