After she lost a friend in an accident last year, Earnesta Nelson put her feelings into song and won herself the 2007 Junior Calypso crown.
Earnesta, a 16-year-old, 5th form student at the Golden Grove Secondary School told Stabroek News that her participation in a Road Safety presentation at her school made her want to put her feelings into lyrics.
Earnesta said she comes from a family who loves music; they are part of a harmony group called ‘Anaconda Soca’ and sing with the ‘Eveready Rhythms’ a group that is familiar to East Coast Demerara residents. She said her family members are great singers and are often coaxed by her mother Bridget Nelson, who loves calypso music. “I always wanted to sing a song that could influence a reduction in the number of road accidents and so my mom said she would assist me and so we sat composed the piece, “Stop the carnage,”” the excited teenager said.
This is the second time that Earnesta has competed in the calypso contest but when she didn’t cop a prize on her first try last year the youngster said she felt she was cheated because of her age and her brother Mark Batson emerged as the winner. “So I prepared for the competition this year and when I entered I told myself that it was time a woman take over because for a long time it was only boys that were winning the competition and that made me even more determined to cop the prize,” she said. Earnesta said even her brother, who was looking forward to winning as well, was behind her 100% and told her teasingly on several occasions, “Don’t worry girl this year you will get a space for sure. And so I used to tell he, ‘Yes man I gon wuk them out with my song’,” she said jokingly, adding breathlessly, “Little did he know I was preparing to wuk him out too.”
Earnesta beat 11 other contestants for the crown. She said when her name was called as winner; she ran to the stage, grabbed the microphone and sang the song all over again. “I was so excited I just didn’t look around for anyone,” she said. Earnesta sang:
Ah pleading, try curb these accidents,
A pleading stiff penalty mus’ come down on dem
A pleading obey all traffic rules,
Severe punishment for ignoring de rules.
This situation must be taken into consideration,
How long would we be able to bear this one?
The teenager said that of all the other contenders she enjoyed a piece by Talisha Adams, whom she believes should have gotten the third prize. “Her song was about VAT and so I thought that maybe she may have gotten it in front of me but then there were others who performed well too,” she observed.
Earnesta was said to be the crowd favourite at last Saturday’s competition which was hosted at the St. Ignatius Sports Club ground in Lethem. Mark Batson, last year’s monarch, who entered the competition with “Good Wood”, came in second this year and Kenroy Fraser known as the ‘Mighty Believer’ came in third with his rendition, “A Man in a woman’s suit”. Other contestants included Rawle Batson, Denesha Glasgow, Keiton Nelson, Natoya Benjamin, Lennox Hodge, Kleon Lindey, Abigail James, Shavaun Babb and Lester Moore.
