Facing the Pic-O-De-Crop judges over the weekend, La-Shawn Charles-Williams looked like a focused woman. It was her first time being judged within the national competition, as a matter of a fact, it was only her third time singing calypso before an audience but you couldn’t even tell. Singing under the sobriquet Caribbean Queen, she didn’t seem intimidated or nervous one bit and she or he delivered her offering Can’t Blame De Children with much confidence and gumption.
This conviction might be as a result of a few years of performing karaoke. It’s an activity she adores due to her passion for music and singing.
In an interview with Barbados TODAY, the mother of two revealed that she has been involved with karaoke since she was 20 years old and has won competitions on quite a few occasions, including being a two-time Barbados Independences karaoke competition winner in 2019 and 2021.
Nevertheless, this yr, in an effort to step outside the box and exhibit her versatility she be-lieved it was prudent to leap ten toes into the calypso arena.
“I can adapt to any genre. I’ve proven the identical on many occasions. It was a desire inside to be an element of the calypso arena doing what I do best and learning from the perfect,” the 36-year-old said.
And she or he selected to learn under the influence of veteran song author and calypsonian Harvey ‘Pop’ Daniel as a member of his Super Gladiators Calypso tent. The support has been over-whelming.
“I’d agree that being on this arena is indeed a fresh start but due to my passion for music and willingness to learn it hasn’t been a challenge. It’s so amazing that individuals would still doubt that I’m a first-timer but God knows my heart. I really like to sing and I can sing anything so long as I put my mind to it. My talent is natural, with no voice or vocal training, pure as could be. . . . Being an element of the Gladiators tent I indeed felt welcomed . . . never a dull moment in my tent,” she laughed.
Charles-Williams is very keen about her 2022 offering Can’t Blame De Children, written by Pop Daniel and arranged by the inimitable Andy Williams, because from the primary time she read the lyrics it took her back to her childhood growing up in Guyana. She recalled that when Pop gave her the lyrics it felt like serendipity.
“Pop gave me that song he said, ‘La-Shawn it will be perfect for you’. I actually didn’t understand how he knew that nevertheless it indeed was. . . . Not much of private experience but [I] shared a neighbourhood with children going through a lot. Children raising children due to neglect and abuse. I actually got teary-eyed twice while performing that song. I really like children and consider that they must be treated with respect and dignity for they’re the leaders of tomorrow.
“From my first rehearsal, I sang that song with pride due to my strong belief that children should in any respect times be cared for and loved and revered. I too need to add that my arranger did an awesome job arranging my song.
“As Bajans would say, Fluffy do the dog,” she quipped. Charles-Williams could have to attend slightly longer before she knows if she’ll advance to the semifinals of the calypso competition but she is happy with her journey so far.
She said: “From the primary time I heard about Pic-O-De-Crop and what it actually meant I wanted to offer it a try [and] I told myself that someday I have to be on that stage. It’s my desire to be a flexible performer which I’d even extend to later becoming a songwriter and possibly an arranger.
I’m praying as a first-timer to be an element of the 17 chosen to come back up against the monarch. The sky’s the limit. there’s no stopping with me. I’m gonna keep pushing until I get there. I really like music and music is what I’ll indulge.”
As for her future, she is a self-dubbed people’s person, one which loves her Caribbean people and in furthering her singing profession she desires to give you the option to tour the Caribbean singing sweet melodies. (KC)
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