By Tomeika Jeffrey
Montserrat-born Keithroy “De Bear” Morson, calypso king of Antigua, captured yet another crown, this time at the Leeward Islands Calypso Monarch competition held in Anguilla on Saturday, August 11. He shares the title with St. Kitts and Nevis, Konris “King Konris” Maynard who originally placed second behind DeBear, but the decision was overturned after the Leeward Islands Calypso Competition (LICC) Committee revisited the results and determined that there was ‘an error in the auditing of the scores.’
De Bear competed against six contenders from across the Leeward Islands and walked away the EC$10,000 cash prize for first place. Meanwhile King Konris who originally captured the prize for second place of EC$5,000, may receive additional prizes with the new decision. Fedalia “Singing Shea Shea” Richardson of Anguilla won EC $3,000 for the third spot.
The win had come just days after Bear swept the competition in Antigua to defend his title as the island’s Calypso Monarch for the fourth time. A calypso veteran for more than 20 years, De Bear now has a total of 10 crowns under his belt after wowing the judges with his performance of “Time to Take your Place” and “Back to Basics,” at the Leeward competition.
The Calypso Monarch, made his first foray into the Calypso arena as a junior Calypsonian while attending the Montserrat Secondary School. In 1992 after having honed his craft for several years, De Bear finally won his first Calypso crown on Montserrat. He went on to successfully defend his title the next year.
Following the volcanic eruptions and subsequent upheaval on his native island, De Bear emigrated to neighboring Antigua. Faced with Antigua’s five-year waiting rule, De Bear was unable to compete in the island’s calypso competition during that period. It was an agonizing wait for a die-hard Calypsonian, but it didn’t take long for him to make his presence felt once he was allowed to compete.
From his humble beginnings on Montserrat De Bear through hard work and perseverance has distinguished himself as a fierce and feared competitor, brilliant songwriter, dynamic performer and an astute social and political commentator.
De Bear has been running a calypso school here in Montserrat since January; he has several crowns to his name, he won the crown on Montserrat on two occasions in 1992 and 1993, he is also Antigua’s independence calypso king of 2002, Antigua calypso monarch 2007, leeward islands calypso monarch 2007 and repeat calypso monarch 2010 and 2011and 2012 in Antigua and Barbuda.
DeBear reduced to sharing to the LICC title
In a release titled: Committee apologizes for error By Charles Jong | PR Consultant, he wrote:
Konris Maynard of St. Kitts and Nevis
The Leeward Islands Calypso Competition (LICC) Committee has revisited the results that were announced for the August 11th Leeward Islands Calypso Competition and has declared Konris Maynard of St. Kitts and Nevis as the rightful winner. De Bear of Antigua and Barbuda had previously been declared as the winner of the competition.
The major announcement was made in a release issued by the Committee on Thursday.
It said in its release, “The Committee without reservation acknowledges that an oversight was made when instructions were given to the Auditor as to how to determine the winner.” The method that it gave to the Auditor to determine the winner was actually the method to be used in the event of a three-way tie. The release further stated, “We agree that a genuine oversight was made in applying the rules when the Auditors were instructed to break the tie by using the raw scores.”
The published scoresheets showed that Konris of St. Kitts and Nevis was ranked first by three out of the five judges.
The Committee said that it examined the results ten days ago and “discussed the overall situation and took into account all factors, and made the decision to declare King Konris and De Bear as joint winners of the 2012, LICC.”
In late news, DeBear has said that he was told by the LICC that he would keep his crown, trophy and prize money and the same would be the case for the ‘newly declared winner.’ “What they were going to do is they would upgrade Konris from first runnerup to joint monarch and take care of him as they have taken care of me as a monarch,” he said, concluding, “That is what the committee called me and told me.”
That seemed not the case as LICC representatives were suggesting according to ZJB radio, that the 1st and 2nd place prize money be joined and split between the two. Konris’ manager in St. Kitts-Nevis is however agreeing that Konris receive the full monarch winnings and prize treatment.
