By: Staff Writer
August 13, 2024
Kelly Clyne, sobriquet, “Rootsman,” hits at political favouritism in the Grenada Calypso Monarch 2024 after his fifth place finish in this year’s competition.
Clyne, who was the defending Calypso Monarch from 2023, told Caribbean Magazine Plus: “I feel a little bit disappointed in one way that I really did my best, but as the saying goes, the competition was stiff.
“One thing I know, the top position was all given to people who was lambasting the Opposition Leader and was in sync with the present administration, because it has political results, but that’s how some people look at it.”
Klyne, in comparing last year’s Calypso Monarch with this year, said it had less political appointees on the judging panel and puts the blame at the feet of the organisers for not following the culture and spirit of what Calypso is.
Klyne said: “Being critical of the people in power is what Calypso is supposed to be. I sang a song last year, it was a balanced song because I was criticising both the present administration and the opposition.
“This year the song that I sang was just criticising certain things that the government of the days will do that is affecting the people of Grenada. I really didn’t get the desired result at all, but that’s okay.”
The judging for a Calypso Monarch is based on five different criteria, with the first being lyrics, followed by melody, then rendition, originality and lastly presentation. Clyne said “all of these criteria could be sidelines, once the judges are pro-government or pro whatever institution they represent.”
Clyne continued: “And if your song is not in sync with what they believe then it will just be sidelined.”
Clyne’s song was “Bawling with their mouth closed,” and sang another song called, “Keep singing,” that sought to address an issue that happened in Grenada several months back where a priest confronted openly criticised a bishop in the bishop’s presence.
Asked if whether he will continue to participate in cultural event in Grenada considering that from his perception the Dickon Mitchell National Democratic Congress led government will appoint their own judges that would cater to their cultural senses.
Clyne said: “There is nothing we could do about it. For instance, there was something that was implemented this year that never happened before in the history of Grenada’s Carnival and culture. Whereby we have two Calypso competitions for the year.
“We have an independent Calypso competition, which is held around Independence Day, around February 7 and the competition is one song. Only one song, you need to compete in the competition.
But for the Carnival competition you need two songs. But those who were at the final stage of the Independence competition with their one song were automatically put into the Carnival competition, which is supposed to be two songs, which was rather unfair for the artists who did not take in the Independence competition.”
Clyne said that this unfairness is made worse when Independence competition artists are subsidized by the government, putting Carnival performers at a disadvantage. “It just looks like the government is trying to get artists to sing Grenada nice, Grenada sweet and the government is good and all of that because the Independence competition songs are just patriotic songs.”