Three for­mer cham­pi­ons, two queens, and a king are among 11 ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who will come up against reign­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch Helon Fran­cis for the 81st Ca­lyp­so Monarch at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah this evening. The Ca­lyp­so Monarch, the most pres­ti­gious ti­tle dur­ing the Car­ni­val Sea­son, will be part of the Di­manche Gras, the show that ush­ers in the Great­est Show on Earth, Trinidad and To­ba­go Car­ni­val.

Helon Fran­cis will at­tempt to join Mighty Spoil­er and Lord Melody to make it a third win. Karene As­che (2011), Ter­ri Lyons (2020), and Ta’zyah O’Con­nor (2023) are the for­mer mon­archs who are try­ing to get their hands on a sec­ond ti­tle and join sev­en oth­er ca­lyp­so­ni­ans to win twice. Yung Bred­da (Ak­e­nathon Lewis), GG (Giselle Fras­er), Kerice Pas­call, Free­town Col­lec­tive (Muham­mad Muwak­il), Nicole Thomas-Clarke, Ri­val­do Lon­don, (Roslyn) Roslyn Reid-Haynes, Rik­ki Jai (Sam­raj Jaimun­gal) are all look­ing to lay their hands on the ti­tle for the first time and be­come the 41st singer to win the cov­et­ed ti­tle.

Ter­ri Lyons, Ca­lyp­so Monarch 2020, is sim­ply look­ing to put on a good show. “I al­ways tell peo­ple I’m not a com­pet­i­tive per­son, but I will use the com­pe­ti­tion to show­case a show. That is what I just want to do. It’s like when you go to a the­atre, you see mu­sic and dance, that is what I just want to do.”