Prime Minister Mia Mottley is calling on the music and cultural industry to safeguard the future of traditional calypso and soca, warning that the genres which built the Crop Over festival must not be overshadowed by newer styles of music.

Addressing the St Philip Ideas Forum at the Princess Margaret Secondary School on Monday night, Mottley said while younger artistes were producing innovative music with year-round appeal, the space must still exist for traditional Crop Over songs during the season that have long defined the festival.

She said: “A lot of the music that’s finding itself into the mainstream Crop Over now is really mainstream music for all year round, the youngsters are doing some brilliant innovations, but those innovations do not have to lock themselves into Crop Over alone.”