Rose and the women’s calypso competition

She did it with the p l a t i n u m - s e l l i n g album “Far from Home”. She has made us proud in Bethel, her village in Tobago, in all of Tobago and Trinidad, as well as the entire Caribbean.

It was brilliant that she sang Leave me Alone when she accepted the award because she is sensing that the calypso is a Road March contender.

But quite frankly, for me, it was even more wonderful that she won this award on the eve of the 33rd National Calypso Queen Competition which was held last night at Queen’s Hall. It has bought back a very pleasant memory of a caring woman.

I recall when Sister Liseli Daaga and the women of the National Women Action Committee (NWAC) met with Rose in 1985 as they planned to revive the National Calypso Queen Competition.

Rose gave her immediate support for the competition. She told them she would perform free of charge because of her belief in the power of women and the power of women in calypso.

The competition, which had been first produced by businessman Lal Parsotan, had not been held for two years previously. When NWAC took up the challenge to keep the competition, things were so bad that there were only 75 people in the first audience that night in February 1985.

Since then the vibrancy and the integrity of the National Calypso Queen Competition has been kept alive by a succession of women leaders: Liseli Daaga, Dela Obika and Stephenie Charles. Each of them was a president of the NWAC and a member of NJAC’s Central Executive.

In the foreword of the magazine commemorating the 15th anniversary of the competition, I wrote, “Where the National Calypso Queen Competition is concerned, there are two memories in particular which NWAC should always cherish.

“The first is the happiness it gave to Calypso Rose who performed at the first NWAC National Calypso Queen Competition. On that evening Rose welcomed her daughters, her children, the new generation of female performers, because she had been a lonely pioneers for many years.

“The second was the happiness it gave to Lady Trinidad who died last year (1998).

She was the first woman to record a calypso but she had to cease performing in the early years of the 1900s because the society felt that it was unbecoming of women to sing calypsoes.” As the 33rd National Calypso Queen Competition was held last night, I know that NWAC would have remembered when Rose graced them with her presence at their first competition in 1985.

Congratulations again, Rose.

Aiyegoro Ome former president, NJAC