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‘Kaieteur News’ tops at Children’s Mash kaiso competition
With the Mash season in full swing, hundreds turned up at the National Cultural Centre on Friday, last, to offer encouragement and support to the regional winners of the Children’s Mashramani Calypso and Dramatic Poetry Competitions 2011. ‘The best of the best’ faced off for the coveted position of National Champion in their respective categories.
The competition was divided into four age groups: – 5-7, 8-10, 11-13 and 14-17 – for both aspects.
Daniel Fanfair collects the first place trophy for his winning piece entitled “Kaieteur News”
Ronwell Gonsalves from Mackenzie High won the 14-17 age group with his song “I Love You”
The children who participated were all decked in beautifully designed and locally made clothing, depicting this year’s Mashramani theme of “Showcasing our culture, sustaining our pride”.
Inside the National Cultural Centre’s auditorium everyone was anxiously awaiting the buzzed “Kaieteur Song”
Daniel Fanfair who performed his winning calypso song “Kaieteur” was in the 8-10 age group.
Everyone had to wait until Latonya Alves of Queenstown Primary (Region Two) captivated the crowd with her song “Land of One People” to earn the first place in the 5-7 age group.
Then it was the 8-10 calypso finals and despite above par performances from Maria De Souza who represented the Santa Rosa Primary and Tumani Fredericks of the Tapacuma Lake Primary, Daniel, the Coomacka Primary student (Region Ten) stole the show.
The crowd was ecstatic and singing along gleefully with him as he performed, and it was foreseen that eventually he would have secured first place in his category.
The most exciting part of the day, however, was that of birthday boy, Travis Chase, the host of the event, at the culmination of the junior half of the competition. He carried on a Soca Artiste like performance and had the entire crowd on its feet, “Palancing” when he sang some popular Soca and dancehall tunes.
Faith Corrica outshone her competitors in the 11-13 calypso category ensuring that Eccles Primary secured its lonesome first place. Nicola Pearson from Tapacuma Lake Primary brought second and Kevon Jeffrey from Santa Rosa Primary secured third.
In the age 14-17 category, Mackenzie High’s Ronwell Gonsalves song “I love You” was first, followed closely by Youlanda Armstrong’s “Teenage Pregnancy”, making Annandale Secondary proud. Tiffany Grant who represented the Cummings Lodge Secondary performed “Miss Le Me Go Over” and was awarded the third place.
Meanwhile, in the results for the Dramatic Poetry competition under the respective categories, all winners benefitted from a $5,000 gift voucher from the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) who sponsored this section of the competition.
Roma Narayan-Singh, Customer Care and Development Officer, of the company made the presentations to the top place finishers in the dramatic poetry segment.
Latonya Alves of Queenstown Primary receives her trophy for winning in the 5-7 age group
Winner of the 11-13 calypso, Faith Corrica, at the awards ceremony
In the 5-7 group, the first place winner was Onifa Pedro of La Retraite Primary (Region three) whose performance was based on a poem called “Teacher’s Plight”, the runners-up were Mariah James of Winfer Gardens Primary (Georgetown) whose piece was entitled “Getting Ready for Mash” and Kayandi Scott of Amelia’s Ward Primary (Region 10) with “Don’t let it be”.
Among the 8-10s, One Mile Primary (Region 10) took the top spot with Vanessa Campbell’s performance of “Don’t mess with me”. Second place went to Andre Persaud of Mortice Primary (Region 5) for his performance on “Me life, Me Cultcha” and Makayah Smith of Concorde Academy (Georgetown) was third with the rendition of her poem “My Guyana”.
For the 11-13 age range, students of the Mackenzie High School (Region 10) were loudly rejoicing as their colleague Naomi Allsopp won first place with her “Child Abuse” piece. Abigail Sobers of the St. Joseph High (Georgetown) presented her piece “Coolie Mother” and was awarded the second place winner while the third spot was awarded to the Uitvlugt Primary (Region 3) as Basmattie Deokie gave an outstanding performance of her poem entitled “Promote them or Not”.
The last age group, 14-17, saw very competitive performances by the older students as they all tried to secure the first place trophy. The award went to Melissa King of the North Ruimveldt Multilateral School (Georgetown) who had the audience cheering loudly and screaming as she did her piece entitled “Guyanese Mad Woman”.
The second spot in this category was awarded to Wendel Pitt of Aurora Secondary (Region Two) and the third position to Denika Ceasar of Bartica Secondary (Region Seven).
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