One-song contest vexes Luta

“Calypso continues suffer at the hands of those who are supposed to nurture, protect, love and promote it,” Luta said. “It is like a child being abused by its own parents. TUCO once again drove another nail in the coffin of Calypso by the decision to have each contestant sing only one song in the finals of the National Calypso Monarch Competition 2017. How can you change the rules in the middle of the game?” In a release earlier this month, TUCO president Lutalo Masimba stated: (At) an extraordinary general membership meeting on Saturday January 7, 2017, among the decisions taken regarding the 2017 National Calypso Monarch Competition were: Contestants will be required to enter one (1) song only for the competition as in previous years. However, in the Final stage of competition only one (1) song will be considered.

It is therefore a one (1) song competition.

A livid Luta who won the title in 1994 and 2006, added: “And as if to say that is not bad enough, TUCO is also saying that you can only sing the song you registered on or before January 27 2017.

Gone are the days when one could expect to hear a new song about some recent development in society or “pull one from the bag” That, according to “TUCO logics” would encourage more people to come out on Carnival Sunday Night to hear the same songs they heard in the tents, semi-finals and categories finals.” Luta questioned: “What is the philosophy behind the “Categories Finals? Why is it necessary? Why spend money that you don’t have on something that you don’t need? It just does not make sense.” The veteran bard ended by saying that while the majority of TUCO members are quite happy with things as they are, “there are intelligent people all over the world looking at us and I Morel Peters (King Luta) don’t want to be counted among those who participated in the killing of calypso.”