Secondary School Calypso results
- 1st — Damian “Boney Man” Noel — St. Martin’s Secondary — “Silence Never”
- 2nd M’riah “Young Siah” Robertson — West St. George Secondary – “Minivan Lover”
- 3rd — Christopher Bacchus — St. Martin’s Secondary School – “Caribbean Dream”
When St. Martin’s Secondary School student Damian “Boney Man” Noel returned to the Junior Calypso competition stage last year, after a three-year hiatus, he gave a performance that many patrons and calypso lovers thought deserved the crown.
But the judges decided that Boney Man’s rendition of “Man With The Plan” was second-place to Kristiana “Singing Kristy” Christopher’s “Fragmentation”.
They gave her the crown — her seventh in the competition — and placed Boney Man in second position.
One year later, on Tuesday, Boney Man, the newly crowned secondary school calypso monarch, admitted to reporters that he had felt cheated in 2017.
“Yes, I felt that way, but the judges’ decision is final, like tonight,” he told reporters at Victoria Park, shortly after his crowning.
He said that his failure to win last year did not affect him negatively.
“It motivated me to sing for this year,” the fifth form student said.
Notwithstanding his experience last year, coming into the 2018 competition, Boney Man had no doubt about his ability or that he would win.
“It’s the same way I came in last year I came in this year,” he said.
Folklorist and social commentator, Sebastian “Bassy” Alexander, wrote Boney Man’s songs for the last two years.
“With my idea as well,” Boney Man said.
This 2018 song, “Silence Never”, he sang, “Silence could never be that golden, don’t mind what me daddy say”.
He said that silence could never be an option to make right wrong.
The song encourages listeners to speak out to the pride of the country “cause silence would always be your worst enemy”.
For an artiste who does not have a lot of experience on the stage, Boney Man has a very commanding presence during his performances.
“Because I am someone who is always outside in the world. I know a lot of people; like a lot of people,” he said, placing even more emphasis on “a lot”, the second time that he had already done.
“So I ain’t ‘fraid of the crowd,” he said.
Boney Man said he sells from a cart in Kingstown on Saturdays, vegetables grown by his grandmother.
He said he does not have to do it for financial reasons, but chooses to do it “for myself, to make my daily living.
“Because I want to become a businessman when I come bigger.
“That’s my hobby,” he said of his Saturday sales, adding that he has been doing this for “years — since I was small”.
In taking the crown, Boney Man defeated not only the veteran Singing Kristy — who did not make it to the top three — but also M’riah “Young Siah” Robertson, who, like Singing Kristy had made it to the finals of the Queen of Calypso Competition, which was won by another Christopher – Joanna “Nubian Princess” Christopher.
Young Siah was dethroned in the soca segment of Tuesday’s competition, being forced into second place by newcomer Teshikaa “Short T” Andrews of Bishop’s College Kingstown
Third place in Tuesday’s secondary school calypso competition went to another St. Martin’s Secondary School boy, Christopher Bacchus, who sang “Caribbean Dream”.