NWAC Calypso Queen Sasha-Ann Moses

During her junior years of competition, she saw numerous successes at the national level, including taking the top spots at the Chaguanas Junior Calypso Monarch (2013), St. Joseph Junior Calypso Monarch (2014), and the National Emancipation Calypso Competition (2012-2014).

Her NWAC Calypso Queen crown is the second title she has won this year, the first being the Stars of Tomorrow 2017 title.

Her winning song this year, “The Main Witness”, “entails the struggles and trials of state witnesses [due to our fractured justice system]. I’m calling for a change in the way they are treated and for more efficiency in the justice system!” she elaborates. In true calypso fashion, the song offers glaring social and political commentary. The opening of her prize-winning performance last Monday included a dramatic enactment in which Sasha and a cousin witness a crime.

“I started off singing soca at a young age and, like any other 12-year-old, I used to think Calypso is ‘old people thing’; boring and most definitely not for me,” she recalls of her early views on the genre that has birthed her current success. “But when I actually got into calypso, it took over me.” She credits this classic genre for allowing her to spread necessary messages of social plights throughout our nation. “Calypso continues to deliver stories on relevant issues,” she notes, adding that the genre is as pertinent now as it was during its genesis. It is calypso’s knack of calling the public to introspect on social issues that draws Sasha most to singing and performing.

She also reiterates that calypso music is the foundation for all other genres and says, “I don’t understand how people could love soca and hate calypso; without calypso there would be no soca.” Apart from calypso music inspiring and driving her creative work, Sasha says her experiences as a performer have also taught her valuable lessons in life such as patience and perseverance, as well as breaking out of her shy shell into a charismatic young woman with improved self-esteem. “Being a performer has taught me how to have hope in everything you do, which has helped me tremendously with my studies! Those times when I feel to give up, I’ve learnt that there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.” Academically, she is a first year student of Law at the UWI, St. Augustine. She says life as a performer and a student go hand-in-hand for her, and while sometimes the two clash in terms of her commitments, they often complement each other “because I learn how to handle tough situations in both.” The undeniable link between her academic pursuits and the themes touched on in “The Main Witness” is proof of how her studies inform her art – and vice versa.

Her greatest artistic inspiration is Calypso Rose (McArtha Lewis), the proclaimed “Calypso Queen of the World”, who has been reigning in the arena of calypso for decades with no indication on slowing down. “She has never sold out herself and has stuck to her calypso music and is taking it to the world,” praises Sasha. “For a lady of her age, she has been handling herself like she never aged!” Sasha hopes to have a longstanding career such as Rose’s and stay true to the art form of calypso that has given her a winning platform. However, calypso and soca aren’t Sasha’s only main stays. During the year, she performs as a frontline singer for local musical group, Mayaro 2.0, a Trinidadian band that focuses on renditions across all genres and boasts its own brass section, which adds depth to their performances. “The 2017 soca ‘My Song’ is about when someone hears their favourite song on the radio or the street and no matter what they’re going through, it can always make them get up and dance,” she divulges of the band’s soca offering this year.

Of her strengths, she says the greatest she possesses, as a performer, is her ability to shock an audience and leave them in amazement – which she loves.

She jokes that before her performances people are sometimes fooled by her physical appearance. “Persons would watch me and say, ‘I don’t believe that she can perform like that or that she can accomplish that.’ I pride myself on seeing the shocked emotion on people’s faces,” she laughs playfully. In fact, proving people wrong is perhaps one of her life’s mantras. “There are always challenges,” she says of the obstacles she has come up against, “I’ve experienced persons constantly telling me no you can’t do it. The way to overcome is to simply prove them wrong; don’t ever give them the satisfaction of believing they were right all along.” It is with this fiery fighting spirit that Sasha enters her sure-to-be successful days, months, and years to come. The Calypso Queen 2017 title is one she holds dear and appreciates more than words can express, but in her mind’s eye she knows there are bigger fish to fry as her career continues to ascend. “Every journey teaches you new things so I’m always learning and growing,” she says of the constant lessons life as a young woman, a performer, and a student teaches her. She continues, “I wish to accomplish wining the Calypso Monarch Crown, touring the world with my Trinidad and Tobago music, complete my education in the field of Law, and continue to spread positive vibes wherever I go.”