This Crop Over season, Adrian “AC” Clarke declared he was “Going Fuh Crown” and he fulfilled his goal when he captured his third Calypso Monarch title at the recently held Pic O De Crop Finals at the National Botanical Gardens.
AC was in good voice and put his all into a light hearted song where he poked fun at some of his rival calypsonians and some of the issues in society over the past year. It was highly reminiscent of the songs he brought in the second half when he won his first two titles, namely “Judgement” in 2001 and “Put That In Yuh Song” in 2008.
Second place went to former two-time Junior Calypso Monarch, Sir Ruel, who dedicated his song, “One Single Bullet” to his late brother, Dario John Holder-Branch who lost his life in a shooting incident earlier this year. He truly put his heart and soul into his rendition and was one of the better performers on the night.
Chrystal placed third with “The Proposal”, which was timely in that it used the backdrop of the Paris Olympic Games to examine the possibility of Barbados hosting the Olympics in 2044, and what types of sports the island may be able to excel in at that time. She also sent out the message in her second verse for those in authority to take sports more seriously on the whole.
Fourth place went to Billboard, who brought his Christian principles to the fore with “War”, where he spoke of global wars, wars in the form of criminal activity in Barbados, and ultimately spiritual warfare.
Other contestants included the promising newcomer Tae, with “A Big Circus”, who placed fifth. Four time monarch Kid Site had to perform his song “Viral” a second time as he experienced glitches with his sound on his first attempt. As expected, he threw in some new lines about the technical problems and eventually placed sixth.
Defending monarch iWeb was not at his best on the night with his “Village Ram”, and actually forgot some of his lines at the end of the song. He finished in 8th place. Both John Yarde and Trinity were in good voice but it is debatable whether their songs were suitable for such a contest. They placed seventh and ninth respectively. Biggie Irie was the last performer on the night and rounded out the top ten as he sang about the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and the long waiting times in the Accident and Emergency Department.
Eric Lewis gave a good account of himself with “Tight Lip”, while another former Junior Monarch, Grateful Co, sang about his personal brush with the law a few years ago and how he has managed to turn his life around since then. Sammy Dello and Darin Holder paid tribute in their presentations to two iconic Barbadian figures, namely King Dyal and Richard Stoute respectively, while Sammy G did an “update” of sorts to Gabby’s “Culture”, focusing on elements creeping into society that we really should not embrace as our culture. Rounding out the 18 were Colin Spencer, Imara and Mr. Deejay, a visually impaired artiste who also forgot the lines in his last verse.
As Barbados commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Crop Over Festival, the finals also featured performances by the first Crop Over Calypso Monarch, the Mighty Destroyer, Barbados’ first and so far only Triple Crown winner, Edwin Yearwood, and the two most crowned Monarchs thus far, the Mighty Gabby and Red Plastic Bag.
