Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 04/Mar 03:52

Voices fly

IN THE END, Carnival 2025 has been about the voice. And by this we do not refer, only, to soca star and pan tune composer Aaron St Louis. This is the Carnival in which the power of human vocals has prevailed, in which substance has triumphed over flash, artistry over presentation. Exodus returned. From the moment the band began to play Voice’s Too Own Way at the Queen’s Park Savannah stage on March 1, it was clear that a fifth Panorama title was coming, ending a 21-year drought. “There was no way they could have stopped it,” the band’s legendary manager Ainsworth Mohammed later remarked. It mattered not how much frou frou competitors wheeled out. All that mattered was the searing spirit of Mr St Louis’s composition, the dazzling arrangement of Terrance Marcelle, and the military precision of the pannists, each aware that the slenderest of margins would make the difference. A performance for the ages. Hours later, Machel Montano proved ethnicity and labels were irrelevant to whether he could be the Chutney Soca Monarch. “Are you ready for some real unity?” he asked Skinner Park, bringing on Drupatee and Lady Lava. We are. He won. But it was at Dimanche Gras not long after that Mr Montano was himself schooled in the basics of performance. His voice, worn out by the season and his triumph mere hours before, could go no further. The defending Calypso Monarch sought to fly, pulling out all the stops, but fell to fifth, clearing the way for the magisterial rise of Independent Senator Helon Francis, Kurt Allen, Yung Bredda, and Karen Asche, all of whom deserve applause. All, in a spine-tingling manner, demonstrated why, in the official judges’ criteria, it’s melody, lyrics and rendition that dominate. Mr Francis had a simple performance. After arriving onstage, he penned and mailed a letter, reflecting the contents of his composition To Whom It May Be. Calypsonians normally address legislators from afar, but the senator shattered norms by proving he could be critical of a system, in a fair but no less acute way, while being seated within it. Yet, it was his understated, composed voice, with its gorgeous tones, that most elevated his address to the incoming PM. His is a historic victory. In stark contrast to this excellence, however, was the overlong show. Consideration should be given to divorcing Dimanche Gras from its more ornamental elements. After a late start, the audience endured a jumbled glut of reused, stale imagery from previous years, tenuously repurposed into a futuristic sailor theme; guest performers wore foil. Less is more. Next year, organisers should trust that the real spectacle comes not from outer space, but from the mouths of our calypsonians. The post Voices fly appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.