Scholar

"I feel relieved".

Those were the three words coming from the lips of Finley "Scholar" Jeffrey after he successfully defended his crown Sunday night at the national calypso monarch competition held at Tanteen, St. George's.

The king who sang in position No. 9 told reporters after the announcement in the wee hours of Monday morning that it was the "sweetest victory" of the four that he achieved in the monarch competition.

Ironically, each time Scholar has won the crown, the show was staged at Tanteen. According to the 2006 National Calypso Monarch, it was not easy for him to prepare for the competition due to his studies with Marryshow House in which he is doing a course with the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Education Management.

Scholar said that it was the most confusing time he ever had in getting himself ready for the battle. It was, he admitted, "the most my brain have been worked".

Scholar conceded that the second song he performed in the competition, "Hold What" was not his original choice for Dimanche Gras night. He said he couldn't learn the song that he really wanted to perform in time for the competition and as such had to make do with "Hold What".

However, Scholar was still confident that the song was strong enough to help him overcome his opponents on the big night.

Scholar's first rendition "A Free Man in Chains" was actually a defense against those whom he said had bumped, bruised and verbally abused him following last year's Carnival in which he regained the title from King Ajamu. "A Free Main In Chains" was a strong response to those who personally attacked Scholar on the radio stations for last year's performance in which he called Ajamu "a wretch" and blasted some of the policies of the ruling New National Party (NNP) administration of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell.

Scholar said: "They really beat me up, they say my daughter and my son will beg, me mouth go twist, ah go get a stroke. It was a lot so I had to find a way to answer", he told reporters.

The calypso monarch said that the song came from "deep down" inside of him and that is why he knew he could sing it with conviction because he actually lived the song. Scholar also made a passing comment on the piccong at the Dimanche Gras show with Ajamu, the seven time calypso monarch winner.

He said that after listening to Ajamu's piccong in the first round of the competition, he felt that he had no choice but to follow suit and it seemingly went down well with those attending the show.

Scholar believes that it was his second round song that was the determining factor in him successfully defending the crown, especially the last verse that he did. He said that he was called by two renowned Trinidad artistes who told him that he should do "Hold What" in the competition since that it was one of the best songs that he had ever produced.

Scholar was asked whether he will continue to hit out at politicians in the years ahead. He said: "As long as the political directorates are doing thing, I will sing about it. So if they stop I will stop. (It) doesn't matter which one (of them in power")

Scholar's two songs "Free Man In Jail" and "Hold What" earned him a total of 777 points and the $30,000.00 in prize money. It also secured for him a place in the OECS Calypso Competition and World Calypso contest to be held later this year.

Elwyn "Black Wizard" Mc Quilkin who topped the points in both the preliminaries and semi-finals finished 2nd with 771 points from his two songs, "Semantic Games" and "Doh Put Your Mouth", while "Ajamu" (760) had to settle for the third position with "The People Know" and "Rock Stone".

The 4th spot went to Bico Lewis (745 points) with his two tunes, "Take Me To Cuba" and "Come Now" while "Boloti" (732) came in 5th with "Ah Fraid For You" and "The Cocoa Dryer" and Randy Isaac who is celebrating 20 years in the business too the 6th position (731) with "20 yrs Not Enough" and "Propaganda.

Teacher Eddie (709) came in 7th with "We Ain't Ready" and "Kaiso Cry"; 8th was Mr X (703) from "Like Ah Sheep" and "Me Navel String" and a tie for the 9th position between the lone female and newcomer to the competition, Shereen Francis and Sean "Sour Serpent" Niles who both scored 676 points.

Shireen's songs were "Tribute To Michael" and "I Can't be Proud" while "Sour Serpent did "To Hell with 3%" and "Use of Stage". The King and Queen of the Bands were also determined on Dimanche Gras night.

The Queen of the Band title went to "Sailor Overboard" portrayed by Arlene Archibald from the band RKD and Associates while King of the Band was taken by Lazarus Antoine and Associates "Back to Basics" as portrayed by Lazarus Antoine.