tidings
Yvonne Webb
ONE of the positives of the Covid isolation is the emergence of young, talented calypsonians.
Embau Moheni, chairman of the National Action Cultural Committee (NACC) and founder of the Young Kings competition, said he is encouraged by the emerging talent.
He spoke to Newsday as auditions for both the NACC Young Kings and the National Women’s Action Committee (NWAC) National Queen competition took place over the weekend.
On Saturday, dozens of calypsonians showed up at the Creative Arts Center, San Fernando trying to win sports in the finals of both competitions scheduled for January and February.
Auditions continued at UTT at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) on Sunday. On Monday, the auditions will move to Tobago.
Moheni said the northern audition attracted a larger group of calypsonians anxious to return to the stage after a two-year absence due to public health restrictions caused by the pandemic.
He said the standard of the 2023 bids was of a very high quality.
“The standards are quite encouraging. What was encouraging, however, was to see so many young people entering for the first time.” He said this shows hope for the future of calypso.
“Our program is a developmental program. When you win at Young Kings, you move on. You create space for somebody else.”
He said that was not the case for the queen portion of the show when it first started in 1985 due to the fact that there were so few women competing at the time.
“That first year we had about eight female contestants. This has changed. Now we have so many women singing calypso.”
The last competitions were held in 2020 when Addelon “Banjela” Braveboy was crowned the Junior King and Makeda Darius was crowned the NWAC National Queen.
In an effort to do something special for artists who were badly hit by the pandemic, Moheni said a special challenge edition of both competitions was held.
The winner of the Young King challenge edition was Ezekiel Yorke, with Meguella Simon winning the challenge edition queen version.
As the prizes were smaller than those won by the winners of the previous competition, Moheni said the top three winners from both competitions were promised automatic entry into this year’s competition.
“They don’t have to audition, they just have to sign up.”
From the auditions, therefore, only 13 men and women will be selected to do battle.
Moheni said the NWAC National Queens competition is scheduled for January 29 at Queen’s Hall, while February 7 is set for Young Kings at Queen’s Park Savannah. He said the contents of the winning purse have not yet been decided.
