For the love of calypso

With calypso music flooding his home from a young age, 15-year-old Duane T’Zyah O’Connor Jr, always wanted to be a calypsonian.

He said he liked music on the whole but had always been attracted to singing calypso, especially when he watched his father, calypsonian and 2012 Calypso Monarch, Duane O’Connor perform on stage.

In addition to his father, he loved the music of Chalkdust (Dr Hollis Liverpool), Karene Asche, Singing Sandra (Sandra DeVignes Millington), The Mighty Sparrow (Slinger Francisco), The Mighty Duke (Kelvin Pope) and other calypsonians. However, he said he could not pick a favourite as everyone had a different style.

He performed at primary school competitions as a student at Newtown Boys’ RC School, and in 2015, while in form two at St Mary’s College, he decided he was ready to start competing nationally and entered the Junior Calypso Monarch competition.

O’Connor Jr said his father never pushed him to sing but supported his choices. Therefore, when he was ready to enter the Junior Calypso Monarch competition, his father resigned from the committee so his son could enter.

This year, after three years of the competition, O’Connor Jr was crowned the 2018 Junior Calypso Monarch on February 5 at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain. His song, Man of Integrity, was written by Brian London. “Your parents want you to be doctors, lawyers, to make money, but the most important thing is to have integrity,” he told Sunday Newsday.

O’Connor Jr said he was elated over his first national win but his father was even more excited about it. He said when the results were being announced he was nervous but when he heard he had won he was extremely happy. He said he did not listen to the songs of his competitors as he was focussed on remembering his own song. He was so focussed, he said, because he did not enter competitions for the prize or the trophy, but to win. “I don’t see a competition as going to have fun. If you are going to have fun you shouldn’t enter a competition. You enter a competition to win.”

He admitted that if he had not won he might have gone home and cried before going to school the next day, as he did the previous three years. He has every intention of defending his crown next year and to continue singing calypso in the future.

O’Connor Jr studies business subjects at St Mary’s and is a member of the school’s choir. He said he had no other interests. “I don’t play any sports. I don’t do anything else but sing.”