LESTER ‘De Professor’ Charles was in the wee hours of Saturday morning crowned the 2020 Senior Calypso Monarch for the sixth time with an electrifying piece in which he lectured the crowd on why they should give the APNU+AFC government a second chance.
Titled “One more,” Charles’ calypso performed at the D’Urban Park where the competition was held, racked up an overall score of 251points. Copping the second position with his song, “We seeing progress in this country,” was Roger Hinds, also known as ‘Young Bill Rogers’ who had a total of 241 points. New comer and Junior Calypso Monarch 2020, Omiah Hall, sang her hit “How come?” and took the third position with a score of 238 points.

Hailing from Linden, Charles took the stage dressed in a neon green and yellow suit as he highlighted through his performance what the coalition government has been doing for Guyana over the last five years. After the show, Charles who had taken a two-year break from the competition due to the death of his father and cousin, told the Guyana Chronicle that he is excited about the victory since for him, the competition was challenging because of its strong competitors.

Nevertheless, he came out on top and is giving all praises to God. According to Charles, the lyrics and inspiration of his song, “One more,” came from his work- place, RUSAL. Charles said, “most of my lyrics and inspiration come from work which is in a bit of turmoil right now, which is the bauxite company, RUSAL. I have my manager and colleagues and when I’m around them we speak politics and we talk everyday story.”

He noted that his song, “One more,” was dedicated to his late cousin and father whom he said were his mentors, motivators and biggest supporters. Charles said that he is a normal, humble father of six children, outside of the calypso competition.

Meanwhile, Omiah Hall noted that winning the Junior Calypso Monarch Competition and obtaining third position in the Senior Calypso Monarch competition is a big deal for her, since it makes her the second person to have been placed in both competitions. “This was my first year in the junior competition and I came out on top and then went over to the semi-finals. I did not expect to be in the finals because the seniors had amazing songs, so I was worried but I came here, I was nervous, I was about to shed a bit of tears before I actually went up on stage,” the youngster shared.

Amongst those with performances that got the crowd’s support were Jovinski Thorne who opened the show with his song, ‘Delete yuhself,” which brought light to the issue of pollution. Jovinski would have convinced some of his supporters with his lyrics, “if you are a store owner involved in the dumping, delete yuhself, and if you know you using the homeless to dump it, delete yuhself cause it sad, real sad how we treat lady Guyana…”
The third performer of the night was Young Bill Rogers who, like most of this year’s competitors, sang about Guyana’s politics via his song, “We seeing progress in this country.” In shedding light on the progress Guyana has experienced over the last five years, Hinds sang, “We seeing progress in this country, some Guyanese, they too blind to see, we seeing progress in this country in education we top the whole Caribbean, we recognise high with tourism, we seeing progress in this country… They raise salaries and old age pension, we seeing progress in this country.”

Bringing out the audience’s laughter was Karen Bennett, who goes by the stage name Queen Makeeba. Queen Makeeba was the eighth of the 10 competitors to perform. Singing her song, “A womn’s Almanac,” Queen Makeeba represented the elderly females who are often stereotyped by males. She reminded the males that although she is elderly, she can still move like an “acrobat.” The competitors were judged by Andrea Mentore, Compton Hodges, Winston Caesar, Carmen Cox, Tyron Arjoon and Lennox Canterbury. The performers were judged on song construction, melody, originality, musical form, compatibility of lyrics and melody, among others.