Cro Cro out of Calypso Monarch race

Con­tro­ver­sial ca­lyp­son­ian Cro Cro (We­st­on Rawl­ins) has failed to make in­to the se­mi-fi­nals of this year’s Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion.

The four-time monarch was no­tably miss­ing from the list of 40-semi­fi­nal­ists re­leased yes­ter­day the Trin­ba­go Uni­fied Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans’ Or­gan­i­sa­tion (TU­CO) who will com­pete in Ca­lyp­so Fi­es­ta at Skin­ner Park, San Fer­nan­do, next Sat­ur­day.

Rawl­ins, a co-or­di­na­tor with the state-run Com­mu­ni­ty-based En­vi­ron­men­tal Pro­tec­tion and En­hance­ment Pro­gramme (CEPEP), was re­cent­ly sus­pend­ed from the pro­gramme af­ter a short video clip of him us­ing ob­scene lan­guage to­wards a fel­low mo­torist went was wide­ly cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia.

Sev­er­al for­mer Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Mon­archs have made it to the next round of the com­pe­ti­tion in­clud­ing: Chalk­dust (Hol­lis Liv­er­pool), De­von Seale, Du­ane O’Con­nor, Karene As­che, Kurt Allen, Chucky (Rod­er­ick Gor­don) and Sug­ar Aloes (Michael Os­ouna).

Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Gyp­sy (Win­ston Pe­ters), who won the ti­tle in 1997, is al­so among the 40 chal­lengers vy­ing for the chance com­pete against reign­ing monarch Helon Fran­cis.

This will be the first year that the fi­nals of the an­nu­al com­pe­ti­tion will be held out­side of the Di­manche Gras show on Car­ni­val Sun­day night. In­stead, it will be TU­CO’s Kaiso­ra­ma on Ter­rif­ic Thurs­day at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

TU­CO al­so an­nounced the 15 fi­nal­ists in the Na­tion­al Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch fi­nals to be held the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah next Mon­day. The reign­ing monarch is O’Con­nor’s son, Du­ane Ta’zyar O’Con­nor.

Ca­lyp­so Monarch se­mi-fi­nal­ists:

1. Ad­de­lon “Ban­jela” Brave­boy- Bring It Back
2. Alana Sin­nette-Khan – Pres­sure Does Buss Pipe
3. Alex “To­ba­go Chalkie” Gift – Trav­el Ad­vi­so­ry
4. Ali­cia Richards – Is­re­al’s Con­cern
5. Al­li­son “War­rior Em­press” Bernard – The You In You
6. An­tho­ny “All­rounder” Hen­drick­son – Where Are The Foot­prints
7. Bri­an Lon­don – Who To Call
8. Dar­wren “Pharoah” Greenidge – For­mu­la
9. De­von Seale – Two Face
10. Dex­ter “The Stinger” Par­sons – Span­ish Food
11. Du­ane O’Con­nor – Re­spect
12. Er­phaan Alves – I Am
13. Heather Mac­In­tosh – Take Over
14. Hol­lis “Chalk­dust” Liv­er­pool – They Put Meh So
15. Je­lanie Wells – Ah Tip­ping
16. Jer­risha Dun­can-Reg­is – Big Fat Ze­ro
17. Joanne “Ti­gress” Row­ley – Who Feels It Knows It
18. Karen Ec­cles Thomas – She Still Have To Wait
19. Karene As­che – Lo­co and Bro­co
20. Ker­ine “Tiny” Williams-Fi­garo – Slip­ping Away
21. Kurt “The Last Bad John of Ca­lyp­so” Allen – Wha Yuh Say?
22. Kyle “KC” Cowie – The Big­ger Pic­ture
23. Les­ley Ann El­lis -Yuh Wan­na Fight
24. Maria Bho­la – False Alarm
25. Mark East­man – Ca­lyp­so Killers
26. Michael “Sug­ar Aloes’ Os­ouna – Su­per G
27. Natasha “Sexy Suzie” Nurse – The Wrong Name
28. Robert “Mighty Tri­ni” Elias – 101 Per­cent
29. Rod­er­ick “Chucky” Gor­don – El Muro (The Wall)
30. Roger “Body­guard” Mo­hammed – Bare­foot
31. Ronal­do Lon­don – Man’s Imag­i­na­tion
32. Selvon “Mis­tah Shak” Noel – J’ou­vert Demons
33. Shel­don “Shel­don Nugget” Bullen – Cel­e­brate Them
34. Shel­don Reid – Wey Meh Trinidad
35. Stacey Sobers – Make T&T Great Again
36. Tami­ka Dar­ius – Oil Cyah Spoil
37. Tam­mi­co “Spicey” Moore – De Crown
38. Ter­ri Lyons – Woman
39. Vic­to­ria “Queen Vic­to­ria” Coop­er-Rahim -Sus­pect Band
40. Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters -When Ele­phants Fight

Re­serves

1. Shirlane Hen­drick­son – Post and Po­si­tion
2. My­ron “In­cred­i­ble My­ron B” Bruce – The Ras­ta In Ras­ta City