Marcus, son of calypso

He’s an altar server at his local church, is the leader of a troop of six in the Boys Scouts and is a top student in his school.

And at the recently concluded command performance of the NGC Sanfest 2018 competition, Marcus McDonald, 10, was adjudged winner in the calypso category with a calypso written by his grandfather, Victor McDonald. The elder McDonald is calypso veteran Mr Mack who regularly performs in the San Fernando-based tent, Kaiso Showkase.

The calypso was titled Mother Trinbago and, according to Marcus, it is about equality among the races.

In a Newsday Kids interview at San Fernando Boys RC Primary School, Marcus, who is in standard four, said his performance as well as the calypso’s lyrics may have been the edge he needed to take the title.

Asked to sing a part of his calypso, Marcus’s voice immediately changed and although he did not get up from his seat, his voice filled the school’s library.

“We could live right here and be happy if we just face reality.

No Indians were ever born in Caroni, no Africans born in Laventille.

Let’s accept for once we from the same country and have one nationality,” he sang.

Marcus said with the assistance of his mother, Kerry Ann Carrington, and father, Rickson McDonald, he learned the calypso in a week’s time. He began singing when he was five-years-old and had just entered first year when he entered a school competition and placed second.

He also joined the choir of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help RC Church, Harris Promenade, San Fernando where he also doubles as an altar server.

He entered TUCO’s Junior Calypso Monarch competition in 2017 but failed to make the finals. This did not stop him and once again he entered in 2018 where he sang Mother Trinbago and placed fourth.

So with calypso flowing through veins, does he want to enter the calypso arena when he grows up?

Marcus just smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

“I am undecided what I want to be when I grow up.” But he does think he has inherited his grandfather’s calypso talent.

And with his favourite subjects being math and science, Marcus does know what school he wants to pass for in the Secondary Entrance Assessment examinations–Presentation College, San Fernando.

He is also active in the scouts having joined in 2015, has risen through the ranks to become a “sixer” or a leader of a group of six.

So what is a typical day for him after school?

“I might just lie down after school, then homework and sometimes I help mummy cook.”

His mother said she allows him to enter any competition or sing in any concert he is invited to participate in as this does not interfere with his academics.

“He is a good child, he does his work, is a top student, and his calypso does not take away from his academics, it adds to it, being an all-round student.”

Marcus is next carded to sing at his school’s Christmas concert next month.