Takes calypso Far From Home

The intention of the song was two-fold. Aside from celebrating the trail she had blazed for women in an artform, which continues to be dominated by men, I Thank Thee, she revealed last week, also spoke to her determination to take calypso beyond local shores.

Rose has accomplished both.

“I knew what I wanted to export, my music to the international market....

Thank God,” Rose, 76, declared of her latest musical feat - a gold album titled, Far From Home - which has made the feisty,Tobago- born bard a household name in Europe.

During a simple celebration in her honour, hosted by the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts at the National Museum in Port-of-Spain, on Tuesday, Rose told guests that she never paid any mind to the dissenting voices who had tried to prevent her from singing calypso.

These included her late father, Altino Sandy, a stern and uncompromising Spiritual Baptist elder from Bethel.

“He was totally against it because one day he told me, ‘You cannot serve God and the devil.’ I call those days the ‘dark days’ and now we have come into the light. In the ‘dark days’ they thought that calypso and steelband had belonged to the Devil,” Rose once recalled in a February 2011 Sunday Newsday interview.

Her father, she said, then staunchly upheld the traditions of the church and was once arrested at Bethlehem Junction for preaching the gospel.

“We were under the British colonial rule and by preaching the gospel, they used to say we disturbing the peace. So, my father was prevented from preaching the gospel under the law of disturbing the peace,” she recalled in the 2011 interview.

“When they told my mother it would be five shillings to bail him out, my father said ‘Let them jail me for life.’ That was the era I came from. So singing calypso, oh, my god! In those days it was very, very strict with the laws that one second into Ash Wednesday, calypso could not be played on the radio, you cannot sing calypso, you cannot even whistle, because you are disrespecting God. And, look we have come to light,” she had said.

But during her early days in calypso, there was much opposition.

Even before I Thank Thee, Rose sang Fire In Meh Wire, a lively, provocative offering which reflected her defiance in the face of those who sought to stifle her talents.

At Tuesday’s celebration, Rose told reporters that although she won the Road March title with the track during Carnival celebrations in 1968, “I did not get the award because I was a woman.” Rose then announced proudly that the song, one of her signature hits, was now being sung in nine different languages. Her other memorable hits include Tempo, Leave Meh Alone and Do Them Back.

Known for her effusive love of children, the calypsonian revealed that during a tour of France in March, she had spoken to young children in eight different schools about the artform and other salient aspects of TT ’s culture - an activity, which, she said, has never occured locally.

“Some of them asked me if I could be their grandmother,” she joked.

But Rose, drawing from her strict, old school upbringing in Tobago, said she dispensed sage advice to her young charges.

“I told them they should listen to their teachers, respect and love them. They (teachers) want to make something out of you,” she said.

One of this country’s leading cultural ambassadors, Rose said she has always been glad to fly the flag of TT on the international scene.

Under the ambit of Because Music, one of Europe’s leading music labels, she became TT ’s first internationally-recognised gold album artiste with the release of Far From Home, which, it was reported, has already sold over 50,000 copies.

Co-produced by international star Manu Chao, the album was released in May and has attracted a huge European following.

The pioneering artiste, who has performed for audiences of more than 80,000 people, has since been compared to late African singers Cesaria Evora and Miriam Makeba.

Showing mementos from her travels throughout Europe, not the least of which was a lengthy feature article in French magazine, Elle, Rose, who turns 77 in April, vowed to spread the message of calypso throughout the world for as long as she has breath in her body.

Dressed simply in a pink blouse and grey pants suit – her signature broad smile in tact — the lovable singer spoke glowingly of her recent experiences, which included backto- back media interviews, intense rehearsal sessions and the outpouring of love from audiences that have continued to admire her affability, spirit and youthful energy.

Flanked by Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts, Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, her European- based manager, Jean Michel Gilbert and local manager, Lorraine O’Connor, Rose told reporters that her passion for calypso was fuelled by her God-given talent.

“God has invested in me the talent to help people and make them forget their troubles,” she said. The five-time Calypso Queen said she also has made a point of exercising and meditating backstage before performances.

“I grew up on fish. It gives you energy and from the time then drums start to beat, the ancestors take over,” she said, erupting into laughter.

Rose also attributed her vitality to her heavy fish consumption and the fact that she has never smoked cigarettes or used illegal drugs.

Aspiring performers, she said, must consume foods and pursue activities that will build their bodies and minds.

At the tribute, the iconic singer also dealt briefly with social issues.

Abuse against women, she informed, was one of her peeves.

Revealing to guests that she had been sexually abused at the age of 18, Rose recalled that when she went to report the incident to the police an aunt had told her that she brought the abuse on herself.

“It (abuse) really bothers me,” she said, telling women that they must never subject themselves to physical and mental abuse and that they should “run” at the first sign of trouble.

“It is not your fault.” Rose said there should be more female police officers in the system to assist abused women. One of the songs on the album, Abatina, addresses domestic abuse.

O’Connor told reporters that the response to Rose’s performances in Europe was overwhelming.

“Some people had never heard calypso before... I cried when I saw it because this is what we want,” she said.

An excited O’Connor said Rose was “opening the doors”of calypso to the rest of the world.

“And these doors are big. She is carrying the baton so that all who are there (in Europe) will want to come to Trinidad,” she said.

O’Connor said TT ’s culture was its biggest tourism export.

In acknowledging Rose’s latest accolade, Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon had earlier vowed to celebrate the calypsonian’s work in 2017 with the help of the Trinidad and Tobago Music Company (MusicTT ).

Gopee-Scoon is hoping to design and implement a music workshop in the form of an information-sharing session geared toward Rose’s 60-year association with the artform.

“We want the young people of Trinidad and Tobago to know you and we want your help to develop the local industry,” the minister told Rose.

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