Gypsy says real calypso takes centre stage in Antigua

Winston “Gypsy” Peters, Trinidadian politician and calypsonian, declared that despite the decrease in ‘real calypso’ singers in the region, Antigua continues to be one of the few places where real calypso takes centre stage.
Speaking with OBSERVER media at the calypso monarch competition Sunday night, Gypsy expressed his views on the topic of modern day calypso and its passage through the years.
“In a lot of ways,  there is some improvement and in a lot of ways I see a whole lot of decrease in the amount of people singing real calypso. On occasions like this, you see and hear real calypso but for some reason young people believe that in order for them to make a comfortable living they have to sing and augment their song with the American songs in order for it to be accepted,” he said.
The calypsonian denounced that kind of approach as a misconception suggesting that upcoming calypsonians should instead do what is in our culture. He concluded that the problem lies in the youth not being conscious of the history of calypso music.
“When you don’t know your history it’s a funny thing. A lot of our young people don’t know that calypso music was the biggest music that this world has ever seen and a lot of the things that they are trying to revert to actually came from calypso,” he said.
The calypsonian thanked E.P. Chet Greene, the minister of culture, for the introduction of picong into this year’s carnival festivities and praised him for holding ex-tempo workshops in Antigua.
He believes that because of these initiatives, calypso in Antigua today is a stand-alone art form where nobody from outside of the island has to come in and sing calypso.