Fresh Calypso Fiesta faces

MANY of those competing in Calypso Fiesta 2025 are faces audiences have not been accustomed to seeing onstage at Skinner Park, San Fernando.

On February 22, the world’s biggest calypso picnic and extravaganza will unleash its usual bacchanal and spectacle. Only a few out of a field of 40 will advance to the Dimanche Gras finals on March 2. Part of the excitement, however, will be the rise of fresh talent within the contest.

Yung Bredda, 25, will perform in ninth position, but for many he will be the top draw. Akhenaton Lewis’s journey to this moment has been one of the greatest notes to Carnival 2025.

Born and raised in Sea Lots, from where he attended nearby Eastern Boys Government Primary School, Mr Lewis’s rise has been bubbling for some time.

His participation in kaiso tents this year reminds the country of the sheer range of his talent, which has been key to his ongoing success. Fittingly, he’s expected to perform We Rise.

Also due to grace the stage are figures such as Anastacia Richardson, Andre Nelson, Anthony La Fleur, J’Leise Orr, Kadija Jeremiah, Kerice Pascall, Lystra Nurse, Marlon Lee, Marq Pierre, Nicholas Ashby and Shashie Nicklas Gosine. La Fleur – Squeezy Rankin – is already a winner as the Young King, whose Justice has many confident he can claim the monarchy.

Among those in the line-up are junior monarch winners and contest participants, former Digicel Rising Star competitors, a beauty queen, various songwriters, people who have been on the scene but focused on other genres such as parang, gospel and freestyle, Young King winners, and other first-timers.

Vying alongside the rising talent will be some familiar and even legendary faces.

Rikki Jai has graced the Skinner Park stage before, but his return comes at a moment of great dynamism in which artists are moving from stage to stage, contest to contest.

The presence of figures like Machel Montano, the defending monarch, and Mical Teja last year, after decades of stagnation within calypso, paved the way for an ongoing renaissance. Some stalwarts are part of that resurgence, including Terri Lyons, Karene Asche and Kurt Allen. Twiggy will compete against her son Lani K.

It will be only the second Calypso Fiesta since the seismic shift wrought by a High Court ruling in 2024 which, for the first time, held that calypsonians cannot use satire as cover for “divisive, derogatory, deceitful, dishonest or defamatory” commentary.

But howsoever the law eventually settles on that matter, we have seen no clear evidence that legal culpability for extreme commentary has had any chill effect on the art form.

On the contrary, calypso seems to be thriving and drawing newer and newer voices.

The abundance of rising talent, as showcased in this year’s semifinal round of the Calypso Monarch competition, bodes well for the future of this vital national art form.