Calypso Rose wins World Music Album of the Year
Contact Staff
Calypso Rose was 15-years-old in 1955 when she hit the music scene in Trinidad and around the world.
Earlier this month, the 76-year-old singer reached her highest high when she snagged the prestigious Music Victory Award, winning World Music Album of the Year. She becomes the first Caribbean artist to win a Victory award, the French equivalent of the Grammys and the country’s most respected music award with more than 1200 industry professionals voting for the candidates.
She won with her 2017 carnival album Far From Home, which was released in June 2016.
The album, which has been certified Gold in France after selling over 80,000 copies, was up against rock group Acid Arab’s album, “Music of France”, and Rokia Traoré’s album “Born So.”
Rose also tasted another level of international success when she received the WOMEX Artist Award in October and performed in front of a television audience of more than a million people, and played more than 50 shows in Europe.
Rose rode that success to what is a spectacular 2017 carnival season with two mega hits Leave Me Alone (a collaboration with Machel Montano and Abatina) that has her performing at events across the country nights on end.
Rose is no stranger when it comes to breaking down barriers. In 1977, the Tobago-born calypso heavy-hitter became the first woman to win the Trinidad and Tobago Road March competition with a super hit Gimme More tempo. And a year later she captured the National Calypso King competition and caused organizers to modify the title to monarch.
In her more than six decades on the scene, Calypso Rose wrote more songs and released well over 20 albums. One of her most memorable hits remains “Fire Fire” which she released in 1966.
She is the most decorated calypsonian in Trinidad and Tobago’s history, and was awarded the Trinidad and Tobago Gold Humming Bird Medal, an award given to Trinidadians “for their loyal and devoted service beneficial to the state in any field, or acts of gallantry.”
