De Bear Scores Three-peat

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Carnival

Monday, 06 August 2012 14:52

By Everton Barnes

Antigua St. John's - Calypso King De Bear out-muscled and out-performed his competitors in Sunday’s Wadadli Beer Calypso Finals at Carnival City to score a three-peat and win the coveted top prize for a third consecutive year.

It was De Bear’s fourth victory overall as he wooed both the judges and the audience with his two renditions; ’Time to Take Our Place’  and ‘Freedom for Mandela’.

It was a lackluster competition with very few notable performances, but De Bear, the consummate performer, was excellent in his performance of ‘Freedom for Mandela’.

In a post-show interview, De Bear urged aspiring Calypsonians to keep their songs relevant to the society and he also urged them to practice their craft daily.

But the man about whom he sang in his Mandela song and who he relegated to first runner up, Zacari, said he felt cheated by De Bear’s victory.

“I feel cheated, very cheated, because this song is a repeat of the Ivena song from last year,” he stated.

However, this charge by Zacari was strongly rejected by De Bear. “Impossible! Impossible! Put the two of them together and you would see that they are not the same song,” De Bear declared.

He said there was nothing in the Mandela song that was part of the song he sang in the competition last year. “I am not even going to respond to that. You have to understand that as the reigning King they (his calypso rivals) are going to try to dethrone me. I’m the defending King so I expect them to throw the kitchen sink at me,” he said.

The Calypso Monarch said his focus is on entertaining the audience adding that there is little time to pay attention to rumours and/or gossip.

De Bear says he wants to enjoy his latest victory as his intention is to ‘enjoy everything that he can as he doesn’t know when it will end’.

Zacari performed ‘Place Called Freedom’ and ‘Genda of a sore’ for his first runner up position, while Singing Althea placed second runner up with ‘Something Special’ and ‘Deception’, which also won Best Social Commentary for 2012. The most Improved Calypsonian prize went to Lipstick.

Lord Determined won for most humourous calypso for ‘Ah fu me Ironee’.

The winner of the completion will receive a top prize of $30,000.00 with $24,000.00 will go to the first runner up, and $21,000.00 going to the second runner up.



The presentation ceremony was marred by the non-appearance of Young Destroyer, who was detained immediately after he exited the stage in the second round.

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