By Azara Lavia
Although he did not make the winner’s circle in the hotly-contested regional calypso show held over the weekend, King Young Destroyer says his animated performance was well-received in Anguilla.
Fresh from retaining his crown at Antigua’s Carnival Calypso Monarch competition last week, Leston Jacobs flew the twin-island nation’s flag at the Leeward Island Calypso Monarch contest on Saturday evening, performing two songs – ‘It Takes a Village’ and ‘One Family, One People’.
Speaking to Observer news on Sunday, King Destroyer Junior said, “Last night went good, you know, I came out and I did my best. Everyone was pleased with my performance and my presentation. I was on point, but unfortunately, I didn’t manage to make the top three for some reason or the other. All this goes with competition, you know, we don’t judge ourselves. We come and we put our best foot forward and we leave the rest. It was a great atmosphere, it was a lot of people.”
“Anguilla is a country that loves calypso a lot. The turnout was real good, it was a packed audience. I got a good response from the crowd. I think I delivered, and I was one of the better calypsonians on the night, but the judges saw things a little different. There’s a lot of people after the competition who thought that the decision was not the way they saw it, but that’s just their opinion.
“Let me congratulate all the winners, you know, all the competitors. There were six islands this year and you know, we’re all monarchs representing our own countries, so we’re naturally all winners.”
The star, who hails from Potters, is a veteran on the calypso stage. The son of eminent calypsonian, Destroyer Senior, Jacobs has honed his skills over the last few decades.
“My calypso skills have been enhanced by my father and many others. I’m singing calypso for 34 years. I’m a 12-time calypso winner. I’m the most diverse calypso king in probably the whole world. All these different competitions I won has helped to enhance my calypso ability. I’m still the reigning undefeated Caribbean calypso king. My enhancement comes from not only my father, it comes from the Mighty Swallow, Short-Shirt, Obsti, Franco, Calypso Joe, Smarty Senior, Solo. All these people played a major part in my development as a calypsonian. The encouragement that I would get from these other calypsonians, it goes a long way.”
Dating back centuries to it’s birth in the plantation fields, calypso remains one of the quintessential sounds of the Caribbean.
Jacobs told us how he sees its future – and offered some suggestions for enhancing the regional contest.
“The future of calypso, the sky’s the limit for calypso, because even after this competition, I gathered some ideas. This competition needs to go around the Caribbean islands rather than stay in one place. I think this competition would be better served if, you know, every year a different island becomes the host country. This year, we only had six countries. For some reason or the other, the islands are pulling out. This baton needs to be passed-on to someone else, and I’m advocating for Antigua. I think it would be a better show held in Antigua.”
The top spot was captured by Anguilla’s reigning monarch, Dr Splinter, 1st runner-up was awarded to, Mighty Dow of St Maarten, and De Voice of Montserrat walked away with the 2nd runner-up spot.
