TRINBAGO Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation (TUCO) Tobago chairman Ainsley King says the organisation’s calypso monarch competition last Sunday was successful because of strategic planning.

The event, at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, saw Pembroke native Nicole Thomas retain her title, after winning the competition in 2020 at the start of the covid19 pandemic.

Organisers and patrons said the competition, which featured 13 calypsonians, was outstanding.

“The standard was very high. It is exactly what we targeted,” King told Newsday.

He said TUCO’s executive changed the criteria, allowing calypsonians to sing compositions they had performed before.

“We opened the competition because, to be quite honest, a lot of the Tobago music would have been unnoticed, because with the normal Carnival, who have time to be looking to Tobago to see what happening when Trinidad is so busy with activities?

“But now the spotlight is on Tobago. Hence the reason why the TUCO executive decided to give all of the powerful songs in the past an opportunity, 'cause plenty of them never got it. And this is why the standard was so high, because the greatest songs end up coming back into the competition.”

He added, “From the TUCO angle, I have to compliment all of the brains I have on my executive, because I think I have some very intelligent people. We were able to study what is happening and restructure.”

King said while TUCO is not in a bad position, other stakeholders are not as fortunate.

“I have been carefully looking at everything. There is so much happening in the space that if your calculation is bad, you could end up in trouble because some people fetes buss, whilst some people’s fetes work.

“I guess while some people fetes work is because they were able to read everything what is happening around them to know what steps to take.”

He said TUCO had done just that.

Referring to its upcoming TUCO Tobago Lime on Saturday, King said, “The plan was to have an all-inclusive, but we had to restructure because of the set of fetes and delays in funding and sponsorship. So we have now changed to the golf course and we are having just a normal Carnival fete instead of an all-inclusive.”

He said the organisation also did not want people to feel the event was only for a “special class of people.

“When we worked it out, we decided to make a change. So I am feeling comfortable from my standpoint. So we have a good feeling going into our event on Saturday.”