Reigning calypso monarch of Dominica Dennison"Dice" Joseph will be a no show at this years calpso show.

Dice at World Creole Music Festival 2008

Pat Aaron writes not only for Dice but several calpsonians as well. He says he his boycotting due to unfair treatment that his Mas Camp Calypso Tent has received. In a movement of solidarity Dice says he will boycott the show as a show of protest. According to the Chronicle, Dice said "when I am told by the Calypso Association that my contributions to calypso are the same as everbody else, I believe that they are talking nonsense. The amount of young people who have been drawn to calpso because of my successess cannot be compared and there are people who hate to give jack his jacket, but I deserve better.
It's too bad that Dice won't be performing. I was really looking forward to seeing for myself the performances that has so captivated the public: fans and haters alike.

Here is a clip of his performance at Creole In the Park 2008:

Daddy Chess at Creole In the Park 2008

Daddy Chess will also not perform this year. This former Dominica Calypso King will be in Trinidad for the International Soca Monarch competition. Best of luck to him!

I went to my first calypso elimination competition at Harlem Plaza, with my my mom and my aunt. Oh my it was just too hilarious!
By the time we got there, over ten calypsonians had already sung their short numbers. Now there were 40 in total, so it was a bit taxing standing through all these artists, but so worth it when someone like The Mighty DBS came and did his rendition "Omar Rough Sea". (lol. weeping. now wiping a tear.sigh....) Basically his chorus was "Omar rough sea, rough sea Omar." The best part though was his ad libs "pow, pow, pow, bladat, bladat, pam, pam, pam, bladat, bladat) Allu de man had sides splitting.

Sour Sour was another contender known to give comic relief. His song was basically "I am the King of the Lane" over, and over, and over, and over, but his on stage antics made it all so animated! Um who else?

Oh Energizer had the crowd in stiches too. His song was "Carnival is Colour" and he was a hefty guy eh, and he was wineing down de place , plus he seemed a little "how u doing" with the hand movements and ting. Speaking of which. Tony Maco (Dominica's most well known Macoman) had a coment for each song and bantered with the host. He/she let everyone know how peeved he/she was after Trendsetter's "You Lie on De Man" basically a anti-gay lifestlyle song. Tony had the crowd on the floor when he said refering to a line in the song "Is me he take Glo Sho".... Tony say his neck cut!!!!! After that statement, here come a rastaman Mousers singing more anti-gay lyrics in his tune "No More Wisdom".

We had some false starts, a few female contenders-one of which I think should look into singing soca her name is Delah her song was called "Let Go", we had a set of twins, in the persons of The Eagle"Wood In the Backyard and Coco Tea "Red Tape". I liked Bettle J the best, a young singer. his lyrics for his song "Change The Music" were fantastic. The song touched on how boring Catholic Mass is and how changing the music could encourage young people to participate. Son Of The Saint got a good response from the crowd as well.

I will definitely go to quarter finals. The 12 quarter finalists are Beetle Jm Yolley, De Booplay,
Bassy, Senator, Delah, Comforter, General Kendes, Son of De Saint, Jamma B, Educator, and Iration are the other finalists.

TOP ROW: Wendy Glenville of Castle Comfort, Amye James of Grand Bay, Attainea Toulon of Roseau, and Kayan Toussaint of Pointe Michel
BOTTOM ROW:Kayla Benjamin of Portsmouth, Lisa Alcendor of Dubique and Nadine Sylvester of Pottersville.

photo source

On Saturday Jan. 3rd 2009 the Carnival Queen hopefuls introduced themselves to the public at the Arawak House of Culture. Click HERE for event photos. The show takes place on Feb. 20th.

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