THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DR. LEROY CALLISTE "THE BLACK STALIN" - HAPPY 81 TOUGH GUY

The Lawyer of Calypso Stalin is equally comfortable onstage among the home crowd as he is in Helsinki, New Orleans, London, Toronto and Denmark

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Dr. Leroy Calliste - Black Stalin - Peoples calypsonian
Leroy Calliste (born 24 September 1941), better known as Black Stalin, is a leading calypsonian from Trinidad and Tobago known for his militant Rastafarian and black nationalist lyrics.
His 1979 win, the first such triumphs at the national level, therefore should be seen not just as a trophy on the shelf. What it marked was the arrival at the top rung of a very different kind of calypsonian.
It was no cakewalk. In fact, his victories have always come in spectacular fashion, their value heightened by the fact that he simply never won from a poor field.
In 1979 he was up against Explainers' “Kicksing in Parliament” and "Dread”, the combination everyone swore would take the title. Also on that stage were Crazy, Short Pants, Relator, Singing Francine, Bro Valentino and Poser, who went on to win the road march title.
In 1985, singing “Wait, Dorothy” and “Ism Schism” he beat Merchant’s “Pan in Danger” and “Caribbean Connection” and two years later, rendered “Mr Panmaker” and “Bun Dem” to pip David Rudder’s semainal work “Calypso Music.”
In 1991 there was “Look on the Bright Side” and a song that has retained its value at fetes to this day, “Feeling to Party”. His last lien to date came in 1995 for “In Time” and the catchy “Sundar”.
Stalin has since gone to win the global title, crowned Calypso King of Kings in 1999 for his rendition of “Black Man Feeling to Party”, one of calypso’s most ingenious love songs and “Wine, Boy” (aka “Wine, Dhanraj, Wine”) a laugh-a-minute piece of political picong. In 1985, at the inaugural edition of that contest, he had placed second to the agreed Calypso King of the World, The Mighty Sparrow.
No less an attraction when in the role of calypso tent NC (apart from singing, he functioned in this capacity for ten years at Kitchener’s Revue), Stalin has made the rounds, bringing decades of experience to the task of charting audience response.
Along with Brother Valentino and Superior, he also opened Iere Kaiso Movement in 1982 at the Communications Workers Union (CWU) Hall, a mere stone’s throw from his former stable at William Munroe’s Kingdom of the Wizards (later known as Spektakula Forum).
He is equally comfortable onstage among the home crowd as he is in Helsinki, New Orleans, London, Toronto, Denmark or the US Virgin Islands where, three years ago, he became the first non-American to be selected as the headlined a calypso tent in Brooklyn, the first to be opened in 15 years, during New York’s Labour Day Carnival celebrations.

Artist: DENYSE PLUMMER
Song: Martin Luther King

Artist: KAREN ECCLES / MICHELLE HENRY
Song: BrighterSide

Artist: A' JANAE KING FRASER
Song: Better Days Are Coming

Artist: KYLE ANTHONY SALAZA
Song: More Come

Artist: T'ZAYAH O'CONNER
Song: Dorothy

Artist: MIGUELA SIMONS /BRIAN LONDON
Song: Sufferers

Artist: KEVIN CALLISTE
Song: In Times

Artist: DEVON SEALS
Song: No Woman No

Artist: KEVAN & KEEGAN CALLISTE; ATIBA WILLIAMS & CALRB HINDS
Song: Mr. Pan Maker

Artist: EUNICE PETERS
Song: Part Time Love

Artist: PHARAOH & TAMIKA DARIUS
Song: Vow To Fight

Artist: BROTHER VALENTINO
Song: One Day Soon

Artist: TONY P
Song: Feeling to Party

Artist: FRANCIS PRIME
Song: Bun Dem

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