Dominica crowned a new calypso monarch during the early hours of Sunday after 24-year-old, Gael ‘Trilla G’ Jno.Baptiste, won the competition from a field of ten contestants including two former monarchs at the Windsor Park Sports Stadium Forecourt.
Jno.Baptiste, who was making his debut in the competition won with his tunes, Dick Taylor Ship and De Boy Cut.
“People keep saying that I am young and I may be the future of calypso, I consider myself to be one of the bright stars in calypso,” he told reporters soon after he was crowned, adding “but I think we can revolutionize the calypso genre a little bit more, bring it back to what it used to be before, and try to create albums so that people can play at any time.
“I do not want calypso to be a genre that is dead after Tewey Vaval, (Ash Wednesday),” he said, noting that the tune De Boy Cut, which was sung for the first time on Sunday night “was written to understand it at the moment.
“I listened to my team, and I had a very strong team that was behind me supporting me and they advised me not to release the song,” he said, describing the song as one that any person can enjoy in the moment.
“We put a presentation together and that is why we went ahead with that strategy and clearly it worked. My music is about sending a message and that is what I basically came into calypso to do and anything else was just an added bonus,” he added.
Nine-time calypso monarch, Dennison ‘Dice’ Joseph, placed second while Chester ‘Daddy Chess’ Letang placed third.
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