St. Maarten Carnival: Calypso Contest Eliminations Moved Back Into Carnival Village

Calypsonians Call On

Politicians To Change

Former Junior Calypso Queen Little Roxy Scores Highest With Old Song

 

Lady Emerald

 The Calypso Eliminations drew a total of 16 contestants on Friday evening April 1^st in the St. Maarten Carnival Village and for the most part it was serious notes on worrying topics. Worry about the political future of St. Maarten, rising taxes, high cost of living, politicians and current manner of politicking under the new status of “country” were other serious notes Calypsonians touched on.

This pre-Carnival event is really the Showcase of the Year, highlighting local musical talents, featuring a year in political review and social commentary, laced in satire and rich humor, and usually sung in very fast and funny rhymes.

Calypso Barbara

Calypso song judges were Claudius Wilson and Romeo Fleming with Ester Davis, as head judge

This year as part of a reorganization and amelioration efforts on behalf of the organizing Foundation, President of the SCDF, Stuart Johnson, noted in The

Lady Sha

Daily Herald newspaper last Tuesday that this year the Calypso Eliminations event has been returned to

Carnival Village although the official opening of the Village is April 25. Traditionally the Eliminations are held at another venue and only the Calypso song Finals are held in the Village.

SCDF President Johnson explained that they had warmed up the roads with two JumpUps,  the Unity JumpUp and the Around Town JumpUp, and that the Village would be warmed up by the Calypsonians!

Mighty Challenger

Monitor

Many of  the 16 Calypsonians also noted they were worried about the political future of the island, noting the political infighting during world wide poor economic times, more and more taxes, high food prices, government impartiality and wide spread nepotism concerning civil servant employment, etc.

The All Stars Band headed by Frank Gumbs, backed up each Calypso contestant with back up vocalists, including singer, Lavaune Henry. Marion and another gentleman joined the backup crew for Lady Emerald’s song and Baker Junior joined for Fish’s performance.

 

Chipman

Lady Emerald was the first to take the stage like a lioness and open the Calypso Elimination contest in the Carnival Village with her original and beseeching song “Do Something For the Children”.

After a break from the Calypso scene, Lady Sha took the stage like a ray of shining light and belted out her song “Country St. Maarten” with gusto.

Making a debut this year was Tall Stephan “Mighty Challenger”, more commonly known as the former Obeah man.

“The Monitor” firmly and peaceably made certain political points clear in his song “I Didn’t Vote For That.”

Calix

Youth Waves band member and Calypsonian, Andrew Richardson otherwise known as “Junior Baker” began his intro with the former DP radio advertisement jingle and then added a humorous view on political wrangling between the three political parties in his song “Call Sarah!”

“When you see him doing naughty things, Call Sarah,” Junior Baker sang with some strong feelings.

Junior Baker

 Mighty Chipman dressed in a spectacular blue Carnival costume complete with hat, noted that “politicians are fighting on the street” in his song Chipmunk. Chipman also made a social comment on the “sheep effect” versus leadership and good governance.

In contrast with the political topics and angles, musical showman and previous Calypso King several times, Isidore York “The Mighty Dow” said “This Government Is The Best” in his song and set out his points for his case. Bystanders noted he had recently switched political parties. Is his vibrant red cap and coat perhaps a symbol for the DP red colors?

The eighth contestant for the evening was the Young Calix with his “Stand Up For We Country” which brought much applause from the audience of perhaps Calypso 300 fans. Also in the front of the audience was his Mother and Father, a former Calypsonian, singing and merrily cheering him on!

Calix’s performance was top notch in all aspects!

 We thought the ninth contestant, Man George from Dominica, had the best music with originality, tuneful, rhythm and had a complete and finished sound. We also appreciated his song lyrics “They Call Him A Foreigner”! Man George's show of contentment, gratitude coupled with appreciation truly touched our hearts this evening. As he left the stage, he asked humbly “Please don’t call me a foreigner, it's too long now!” 

Mighty Dow

Also holding several previous Calypso King titles, the Mighty Repeater came out with his strong song “I Do” where he asked the head of the United People’s Party of St. Maarten, Theo Heyligher if he would “take Sarah as his loving wife” noting the relatively new political power sharing agreement between UP and DP parties, in the last St. Maarten election. “Here comes the bride, she’s not wearing white, she is wearing red,” the Mighty Repeater sang. He was not amused although the words in his song were extremely clever and satirical!
  
New on the Calypso scene, the young Mighty Pepper, sang his original song with several political comments about the Belvedere housing project “deals”.

 He also made a sharp comment on how people follow or the sheep effect that has allowed government to govern with self interest at heart.

Fish The Mega Boss

 Alberto Arrindell “Fish the Mega Boss” noted on his song that the key to dealing with politicians is “I must lock them up and send them to jail”! Fish’s clever and passionate lyrics made the audience chuckle several times.

Man George

Mighty Pepper

Calypso Junior queen, Roxane Webster “Little Roxy” surprisingly did not sing an original song and instead sang an old famous Calypso song that was pertinent to today’s affairs on St. Maarten and also around the world. She noted that fighting and arguing is counterproductive in moving forward and to “count your blessings, my people” and to appreciate we have now today.

Repeater

 Veteran Calypsonian and Calypso junior coach of many years from her home in St. Peters, Calypso Barbara wrote her song about the melee (latest gossip scandal) on the village and the Calypsonians, as well as the various scandals of impartiality that befell DP councilor “Maria” last year and that “she was glad to stand up to her” in the face of what is right. She also sang that “she told the prosecutor she was vexed!”.

Kirk Williams “Mighty Kirk” hit the stage like a bomb and had his audience cheering in agreement with his clever song “More Music No Justice”.

  

King Barrow sang his song “For Better or Worse” noting that politicians’ “bank books getting big”! Barrow also noted that politicians are “treating people like dirt” and have “no respect for life”.

As the All Stars Band members packed up instruments, we were treated to a replay of all the Calypso songs of the evening. Two radio stations broadcasted the event live and one TV station crew were on hand to film.

Calypso songs were judged according to rendition 20 points, lyrics 30 points, melody 30 points, presentation 10 points and originality 10 points.

Little Roxy

The DJ announced that the 10 contestants for the Calypso Finals scheduled for April 28, were King Barrow with 218 points, Lady Emerald with 230, Mighty Kirk with 230 points,  Mighty Challenger with

239 points, Baker Junior with 242 points, Fish with 249 points, Mighty Repeater with 252 points, Mighty Dow with 254 points, Young Calix with 257 points and Little Roxy with top score of 260 points.

We noted that no foreign Calypsonians had made finals and thought privately that Man George’s performance should have made the final, with his original song, great and clear voice, beautiful music arrangement and his social comment on what’s like to be a foreigner in sweet St. Maarten. We also thought that Lady Sha with her catchy song “Country St. Maarten” and Calypso Barbara, and her song “Maria” should have placed in the finals.

Mighty Kirk

However over the years we have all attended many Calypso Elimination contests and the fact that there is always controversy concerning the judge’s judgments that continue weeks after the event on the radio waves and TV discussion shows, and we do accept the judge’s scores as final.

But the shocking question was how the winner, Little Roxy, made the top score with someone else’s famous Calypso song according to the competition rules?

King Barrow

And may we recommend due to the high level competition that all judges have musical professions, thus musical expertise and a first rate knowledge of music? 

We would like to add that we were very excited by the calibre and standard of the Calypso Elimination contest this year, it was a great show and we thoroughly enjoyed our evening, listening to good songs and music, plus sharing some laughs with old friends!

Please see the 2011 St. Maarten Carnival program here http://www.stmaartencarnival.net/

Video Interview With Musical Super Star Wcylef Jean On St. Maarten

 St. Maarten's Audrey 
Jack Interviews Wyclef
What Does Wyclef Have To Say?

While final races of the 31st annual St. Maarten Heineken Regatta were en route on Sunday morning and in preparation of the grand concert to celebrate and close the Regatta, International musical star, Wyclef Jean, was interviewed by local media at the St. Maarten Yacht Club.
 Wyclef sang in concert for the sailors until 3pm on KimSha Beach in Simpson Bay that night!

As I raced on Synergy with Captain Lea and Team-Wave Sunday, I was unable to attend, so here is St. Maarten's talented Audrey Jack and her video interview with Wycleff!

Please click to View Audrey's Video Link:
http://www.vimeo.com/21296485

Audrey R. Jack is the  Executive Producer and Host of The All Access Show.
Please see more on www.morebacchanal.com

St. Maarten Heineken Regatta 2011 Winners And Awards

Wycleff Jean Sings From The

Heart For Sailors Until 3pm

Green Steps And Clean Regatta Bronze Award

St. Maarten Heineken Regatta sailors dance with Wycleff

Despite the wind gods non cooperation and there was serious expansion of CSA racing classes to accommodate a high entry level of  brand new designs of serious racing yachts and which was subdivided by Race Committee officials to create an exciting CSA 1R and CSA 1C classes for the first time ever. This notes that St. Maarten Heineken Regatta has become a favourite among regional and internationally based racers and is fast becoming even more popular among professional European, US and American sailors who note the event in their racing calendars.

In concert Sunday, Wycleff Jean sang to the sailors until 3pm

Whether the news of this event is spread word of mouth and or via the great promotions yearly by St. Maarten Heineken Regatta officials, a great work has been done. And we say this in response to the feedback we received from sailors in the event who emphasized the good St. Maarten Heineken Regatta organization and friendliness.

Wycleff Jean sings to a responsive audiance!

“At the end of the weekend everything was a complete success, there were no major incidences on or off the water. It went smoothly and for the competitors looking in, it was well organized, which is our main goal at the end of the day,” St. Maarten Heineken Regatta Director, Heather Tackling noted with some satisfaction on Monday, March 7.

Clean Regatta And Green Steps

Heather confirmed that the Sailors for the Sea, ocean conservation group have again awarded the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta a Bronze award for Clean Regatta status, for green and environment conservation efforts.

This year Heavenly Water joined the St. Maarten Heineken Regatta in a sponsorship for the first time and donated drinkable water for event and at the same time launched green steps forward to introduce eco-friendly water bottles with bright green biodegradable cap. The new Heavenly Water plastic bottles are made entirely from plants and leave no toxic residue behind after they have ‘biodegraded’.

“Heavenly Water and Good2Go have come together to introduce biodegradable water bottles to the island – a first, not only for St. Maarten but for the entire Caribbean. In fact, only a handful of companies worldwide so far have produced eco-friendly water bottles, so Heavenly Water should be heartily congratulated on their innovative development,” Heather explained in her press release on http://www.heinekenregatta.com

Heather added that “Residents and visitors alike are voicing growing concerns about the number of discarded plastic bottles that are appearing in our oceans, lagoons, on our beaches and around our countryside. The problem of plastic pollution is becoming a huge issue for St. Maarten and just to emphasize that point, a beach clean-up in Nettle Bay last August, collected almost one ton of plastic bottles in just three hours!”

This is a stunning figure, in fact Heather noted that “worldwide, 30 billion plastic water bottles are thrown away every year. That’s over 8 million a day or around a hundred bottles per second.”

Drinkable water in biodegradable bottles can be bought from selected stores on St. Maarten or check http://www.heavenlywaters.com!

Winners, Cups and Beautiful Yachts

For the team’s contribution to charities, the Goldendog Cup was awarded to the all girl Dutch team headed by Marieke Poulie on Sun Odyssey 44i, Something Hot, in Bareboat 3 class. These dynamic young ladies work for Heineken in different countries such as the Netherlands and the Republic of Panama, and have been participating in the regatta since since 1997. In 2008 this crew won the award for "Most Fun" team and in 2009 the team ended in the 2nd place in the same category. Last year the Something Hot girls won their class for the first time!

It was Peter Peake’s Reichel Pugh 43, Storm, who stormed the Australian crew on the Cookson 50 Jazz aside in CSA 1R and scored a bullet Sunday, to capture CSA IR cup. Besides the tough competition between the Reichel Pugh 43 and the Cookson 50 throughout the 3 day regatta, beginning with Gill Commodore’s Cup on Thursday, Oyster Catcher remained in 3^rd place during the 4 consecutive races, as did Genuine Risk in 4^th place and the Volvo 60 crewed by a Lithuania team, Ambersail in 5^th place.

We would like to note that we really enjoyed watching the professional level of competition in this class, it was hot and tense with skillful maneuvers.

Wendy Schmidt’s Swan 80, Team Selene, won the CSA 1C cup for the second consecutive year however the race classer winner of the day was Bill Alcott’s new Swan 601, Aquarius! Team Selene also won the Best Swan trophy!

CSA 2 class winners INTAC crew

Mark Plaxton’s Melges 32, INTAC, walked off with the CSA 2 class Cup with 4 straight bullets and the Captain Andrea Scarabelli of Melges 24, Budget Marine, placed 2^nd overall with a three 2^nd places and one 6^th place.

The CSA 3 class cup went the Spanish team aboard the Swan 77, La Forza del Destino, who also managed a class win of the day as well as a bullet in the Friday race.

Philippe Falle’s  Beneteau First 50, Hydrocarbon Logic, scored a bullet Sunday and also took the class cup for CSA 4 and also the Best Head Boat trophy. (Head boat meaning charter racing yacht)

Otre Vez

The CSA 5 class cup went to the American team aboard the William Coates’s J122, Otra Vez. We noted that this J122 crew sailed a fine race and managed to maintain an overall boat speed over the light winds during the 3 day weekend regatta event.

CSA 6 class was dominated by locally based teams from St. Martin and quite a number of crews from St. Barths!

Vanille

Speedy Nemo and Lil'E St. BarthsCom Sunday

The French St. Martin team headed by Philippe Herve and his Beneteau First Spirit 300, won the CSA 6 class cup along with a class win that day. St. Maarten’s Ian Hope-Ross on the Beneteau First 36.7 placed 2^nd overall while Raymond Magras, and his St. Barths team on the Dufour 34, Speedy Nemo placed 3^rd overall. Raphael Magras on his Xyacht, Maelia, placed 4^th overall and the black 9.5 metres, Fox’s Shark Requin, Lil’E St. BarthsCom placed 5^th!

Bobby Velasquez’s Beneteau 45F5, L’Esperance won CSA 7 class cup with two 1^st places and a 2^nd place Sunday.

De Wilgen Vastgoed

Klaas van Duuren’s x612, De Wilgen Vastgoed placed 2^nd overall in CSA 7 and won the SOL Cup for Fastest Non-Spi Around the Island on Friday.

Tanner Jones’s Antigua crew on the J30, Blue Peter walked away The Best J Boat trophy and the CSA 8 class Cup with a 1^st the Friday Around the Island race, a 2^nd place Saturday and class win Sunday.

Sandy Mair’s Soverel 30 from Antigua, Streaker placed 2^nd overall respectively!

In Lotterie class overall winner was the yacht from Turkey, Ekber Levent’s Beneteau First 38, Tzigane!

Phaedo becalmed Sunday

                                                                                          

Phaedo crew on Saturday morning at the SMYC

In the three multihull classes, Lloyd Thornburg’s new orange Gunboat, Phaedo scored 3 consecutive bullets and won CSA 1C. Patrick Turner’s Dick Newick, Team Kahunas also scored 3 consecutive bullets and the Russian team on the VPM Lagoon 500, Nikiforov, won Multihull 2 with two first places and one 3^rd place Sunday.

For all Bareboat classes, please see Results at http://www.heinekenregatta.com!

Concert photos of Wycleff Jean curtesy of Tom Zinn photography www.tomzinn.com and INTAC crew trophy curtesy of http://www.HeinekenRegatta.com, thank you!

See you-all there next year!!!

Team Wave/Synergy Donate US$ 2,500 To Safehaven

Team Wave Ladies Use Creative
Ways of  Fundraising With Success
Cheque Handover On International Women's Day

Synergy

As part of an extensive fundraising effort by Team-Wave during St. Maarten Heineken Regatta, the female sailing team triumphantly presented a cheque of US$2,500 to Safehaven Director, Loyola Seymonson on International Women's Day, on Tuesday morning, March 8, aboard the catamaran, Manukai, in Simpson Bay Yacht Club.

"Team WAVE's goal is to highlight the need to support mistreated women locally and internationally," TeamWave Captain, Val Doan said.  "There is a worldwide epidemic of violence against women, whether through domestic abuse, rampant rape or exploitation in war torn and third world countries. By competing with our all-female crew and raising funds, we are creating a global awareness and asking the public to join us in our efforts." http://team-wave.info/nb.html
 

Agnes Waakraam, Val Doan, Loyola Seymonson, Maike van Mameren, Claudia Delahoy

"We have to relocate as the roof is leaking. We have found a nice location and we need money for rent. We have to relocate the shelter as we have clients inside, there are pots and pans everywhere (when it rains) and we have been very blessed by government and businesses, so when Lea sent me an email - we were so very pleased to hook up with (yacht) Synergy and we are so very happy to work together (with Team-Wave)", Safehaven Director, Loyola Seymonson said cheerfully on Tuesday morning.

Vanessa, Lea and Denise

 The raffle organized by Team-Wave was drawn on Monday evening at the St. Maarten Yacht Club and the top prize, a yacht haulout was won by the Captain of  the 70 metre expedition ship Sherakan, Sietske, who is Lea de Haas's daughter! And Sietske donated her prize to her Mother, to allow Synergy to benefit the haulout! The second prize was a duffle bag for the weekend.

Synergy crosses the Requin, Lil'E St. Barths

Team Wave Captain, Val Doan, said that she donated Team Wave T-shirts and bought hundreds of raffle tickets as well as the entire Team Wave crew who also made personal contributions.

 Val noted with appreciation the initiative taken by Team Wave member, artist Helen Mussell, who raised a grand total of US$900 by selling her delightful paintings during an art evening held at the St. Maarten Yacht Club just before the Regatta. http://www.helenmussellart.com/index.php

Winch lady Vanessa, Lea, Denise, Maike and Val

"Lea de Haas also raised US$800 in contributions by selling wrist bands, raffle tickets along with donations from friends and family," Val continued. "Our sponsors included St. Maarten Ship Yard, Divi Little Bay Hotel, KFC, Liz Claiborne, Fountain of Health shop, Budget Marine, jewelry designer Mac Miller and Deju Vu restaurant. And we raised US$200 by selling Team-Wave bracelets."
"We had fun, it was really nice," Val added softly.