NEW king & queen

ALL hail our new monarchs of Carnival!

A new Carnival King and Queen will reign following Wednesday night’s competition at the Queen’s Park Savannah. New King Joseph Lewis’ victory has broken the trend of more experienced masqueraders winning the title. After placing a distant tenth last year, 27-year-old Lewis of Cumuto, was the supreme act with his costume Ghelgath – The Demon Lord of Ice, from the band Antourage Production portraying Masquerade – The Hidden Beauty.

His second year on the big stage and being announced the winner, left Lewis was excited and overwhelmed by it all.

“Unfortunately last year I placed tenth, but I picked up from that to come this year more focussed, more driven, determined to be King of Carnival and here I am today,” he told Newsday after the show.

Lewis said construction of the costume began last June and being part of the process from the start left him very confident in the quality of his costume. The costume was that of a demon, Ghelgath, riding a blue and white dragon surrounded by spikes of ice in the same colours.

MY COSTUME IS PART OF ME

“I like to feel very connected to my costume. I don’t like to feel like someone merely pulling a costume. That costume is a manifestation of me. It’s an extension of who I am on stage...From the get-go, coming in to Carnival 2019 I was determined to give it my all. Knowing the trials and tribulations I endured, putting the costume together, making sure everything is in top-notch shape, I knew I had a good chance.”

In second place was Tekel Sylvan with A Peacock Becomes the Windows of the Universe while Ted Eustace’s What Lurks in the Night placed third.

The 2019 Queen of Carnival was also new to the competition, this being her first time in the finals. Shynel Brizan, 26, portrayed Mariella, Shadow of Consciousness as queen of the band Moko Somokow, which presented Palace of the Peacock. She was crowned new Queen of Carnival.

Brizan’s moko jumbie, swathed in earth-toned materials, wowed the crowd with her dance and the movement of her wings. She was the first moko jumbie to win Carnival Queen since Stephanie Kanhai in 2015.

Asked if she was worried about her chances against the much more elaborate costumes of her competitors, Brizan said she did not concern herself with them, opting instead to focus on her performance.

Brizan said she was shocked when her name was called as the new queen especially as she placed seventh in the preliminaries and was suffering from the flu on finals night. But she asked God to give her the strength to go on.

WIN CAME AS A SURPRISE

“I was going in saying that I would do my best. I had good crowd response in the prelims, so I was a bit confident. I knew people were looking forward to a good performance in the finals, so I said I would at least come and try to give them that. I wasn’t expecting to win – but I’ll take that,” Brizan said.

Another crowd favourite, Roxanne Omalo’s Solar Goddess of the Sky, placed second with a red and orange fire-breathing bird with a “woman” perched atop its back. In third place was Night of the Chameleon Queen portrayed by Savitri Holassie.

While the senior competition brought new winners, the junior non-school categories saw last year’s winners holding on to their crowns. Jermiah Walters, 13, of Tunapuna Government Secondary won with Beauty of Our National Bird – The Scarlet Ibis. She said she was not sure she would make it to the finals so she was a bit scared during her performance, but elated by her win.

Junior King Nikolai Jagdeo, 12, of Hillview College, said winning again was “unbelievable” because of the challenge of the breeze they both faced at the prelims, and they did not mind the rain. His portrayal was Celebrations of the Pan.

In the schools category, the new junior queen was Shayera Olivierre portraying Limbo, and junior king was Keoni Henry portraying Ahearn The Rainbow Maker.

The rain caused a number of delays to the start, and during the show as the stage had to be swept and mopped for the safety of the masqueraders, especially the moko jumbies. Jesus Martin Carlow, in the school king category, had a small mishap when the strap of one of his short stilts came loose and he fell while portraying Mas Boi and landed on his back.

People rushed onto the stage, including his team and several fire officers. They made sure he was unhurt, unstrapped the stilts and he finished his performance. There were also several dance, instrumental and singing performances including those from soca artists Nailah Blackman and Aaron Duncan.