Calypso Rose, Trailblazer and Caribbean Icon

The subject of this article is the extraordinary career of Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis, best known by her calypso sobriquet, Calypso Rose.2 She is the most celebrated and awarded female calypsonian in Caribbean history, serving as a trailblazer for women in the calypso art form. Rose is widely regarded as one of the greatest calypsonians of her generation and has written approximately eight hundred songs and recorded more than twenty albums to date. This article focuses on representative examples of the rich body of musical works Rose has composed, recorded, and performed for over five decades. Rose's songs have addressed many topics, including aspects of gender relations, advice to women, and female sexual desire. More than any other calypsonian, Rose has been eager to try new sounds to enhance the message of her song lyrics. This in turn has shaped the musical and lyrical conventions of calypso music, making Rose's contribution to the history of Caribbean music quite significant. Over her long career, Rose has collaborated with a wide variety of singers, writers, and producers from throughout the Caribbean and other parts of the African diaspora. In this article, I will demonstrate how Rose's musical works have received widespread recognition and continue to make a lasting impact upon global music.3For the past three decades, I have researched the role of women in Afro-Trinidadian music and how this music has spread to various parts of the world.4 My 2016 book, What She Go Do, contains my research up to 2014, and I have continued to build on this work to date. Since the publication of my book, Rose has experienced a career renaissance, facilitated by various collaborators discussed below. The present article grew out of a webinar organized by Rhoma Spencer in October 2022 that included me, Dr. Alison McLetchie, Dr. Anil Gosine, and Dr. Ramabai Espinet. The event, held in commemoration of Calypso History Month, was sponsored by the Mark S. Bonham Center for Sexual Diversity Studies at the University of Toronto. Spencer organized this event as part of her work as a university fellow, during which time she developed her musical on Rose's life entitled Queen of the Road.5 The webinar was a very fruitful collaboration, and it inspired me to revisit Rose and her musical works. Part of our discussion focused on how Rose's musical works and performance style embody feminist/womanist concepts, concerns, dreams, and hopes for the future. McLetchie proposed the concept of wajang feminism to discuss Rose's approach to her artform: The concept of wajang feminism is not one that exists in the scholarly literature. Rather it is my clumsy attempt to describe the feminism that I have observed that is unique to Trinbago. When I think of a wajang, I think of a person, often a woman, who gets creative, sometimes even loud, and abandons polite behavior when cornered or trying to make her voice heard. For me, a person acts like a wajang. This action is a temporary state which is summoned when needed.6For nearly fifty years, Rose has made her voice heard, embodying the persona of a warrior woman in her performances. Rose has made moving social commentaries on women's issues, particularly domestic violence and sexual abuse, but some of her songs also celebrate female sexual appetite and frequently mock male sexual inadequacy.7 Rose has always told things like they are and directly confronted her detractors in interviews and in songs. She has also made important musical contributions to Trinbagonian popular music. Rose is an innovative songwriter, and she has explored realms into which no other calypsonian has ventured. She was very much part of the soca music revolution and one of the women who innovated that style of music. Rose shows the important role that women play as Caribbean culture bearers and the joy that women experience at Carnival and other occasions at which Caribbean music is celebrated.Due to its history as an international crossroads, Trinidad and Tobago is among the most ethnically diverse nations in the Caribbean. Tobago, a much smaller island to the east of Trinidad whose topography was allegedly the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, had little connection to Trinidad until the two were united as a British crown colony in 1889. In the 1940s, Tobago was relatively homogenous ethnically, and people from there were frequently referred to as “small islanders.” It was into this environment that Linda McCartha Sandy was born in 1940. Her middle name was derived from that of General Douglas MacArthur. Called “Cartey” by her family, she was the fifth of eleven children of a Spiritual Baptist preacher and his wife, whose parish was in the village of Bethel in Tobago. If little Cartey had remained in that one-bedroom house with her parents and ten siblings, her life would probably have taken quite a different turn. Instead, her father's brother and his common-law wife, who had no children of their own, offered to take one of the Sandy children to live with them in Barataria, a village in greater Port of Spain on the island of Trinidad. This practice of informal adoption, known as “child shifting,” is common among working-class Afro-Caribbean families. Rose recalled the experience for journalist Deborah John: Well, you know they wasn't really married, she was living with him, but he sent her over to choose one of us and my mother put all of us to stand up in a line. I was little and in those days I used to suck my finger. I used to stammer, and she saw me standing there and said, “Darling, what is and I She my and said, to to Trinidad with The on the it was to live from her family, Rose to the of her and In her new she would have the to a than she would in Tobago and to the culture of the She was at and on she at a with her and she to her father's house in Tobago and Spiritual Baptist with her was in the environment of her that Rose's for music She to by in the and how to play and her Rose performed at at and at various in her village of the time she was a Rose was her songs. Her and her were by the music she in her two I grew up to my was a Spiritual and in Tobago, have in my When was all used to was and all those and when I to was my I have more music in my house than I from and recorded I have two The is My the other that I is the Baptist and style has my and my Rose more by the and an Baptist She in the and is with the of calypso is an art that had a long history Rose songs. It is an Afro-Trinidadian of music that among the of who the in Port of Over calypso one of the song in the Caribbean. calypsonians addressed social and issues, from to songs were of a were of sexual as as from the of the and middle an calypsonian, to calypso as mother music of the as is the mother music of Calypso in her the and with the of calypso In the calypsonian to and an in the calypso It recorded in was by and in as in the of and calypso by and to with the and and were in and calypsonians work at and at the on were popular even as they the behavior and sexual with of songs from this time the and by and a song by as the of a by her In recorded an various and popular songs including by his as the and recorded as various including and known as in a new generation of continued to the music and continued its among included the two most calypsonians of the and the and the and producers the Caribbean and in the of the and up to the present Rose to and from to and producers present in that Rose's calypso was a in calypsonian has always with the the the the or his and calypsonians had a the one the calypsonian was of as a for the a who his of and to that at this role as a social and the to the calypsonian was that of a not much than a common It not that the many calypsonians the of a in of women a who in the and of its and and are the women who have been by the what you really had in you really take and and and all like the really make to you on the you you are a and all in and you really a you made you all of you have in and the is little that in this environment among calypsonians and of and sexual as as and sexual the of other Rose her calypso there were female calypsonians for her to the was the woman to the of a calypso She had her in music as a of a of the who would to saw and that she to calypso his In she made her at as part of the of the on the to and a woman and saw a new to In and in the for that Carnival female calypsonians of the and were part of The most of were and his whose was to was to as a and his in to with also her songs in most of which a or as in to the of they are they try to them out of have are her most or from the to on her me or live with living with a Trinidad and made which were on the and Rose them her Rose's the of Trinidad and Tobago. 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She has also an of the Caribbean. Her life and career are in the musical Calypso Queen of the by the Rhoma Spencer and I discussed the inspiration for this which had two in and in Tobago in I have to of the it was life in the and on a until I saw the musical on in the I was in Rose's for two days her her and calypso What me all this time is how much Rose was quite a and She the that she her into calypso as a voice for the She to and our women she was up with the of women in the of She to women a that they not have to from their and her was to them of the The Calypso Rose has been with calypsonian The performance was in by in Port of and in Tobago. Spencer to the work in at some with hopes that Rose will to in her long career, Rose has long past any of and her work to one of the most important of Caribbean music and She has as a warrior woman, out for the and but also the joy and of Carnival and other for calypso music. More than any other calypsonian, Rose has always been eager to try new sounds to enhance the message of her song lyrics. Her in part from her for songs to I is one of the many that Rose's songs have widespread recognition and continue to make a lasting impact upon global music. Her to to a wide international as an inspiration to many who her a musical

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