Tempest hopes to brew storm in calypso finals
-out to prove you don't need sight to sing
By Iana Seales
Stabroek News
February 20, 2004
Lady Tempest may not be the woman Canary sings about in his piece "A woman is a woman," but intuition tells the calypsonian the monarchy will again bypass her because she is blind.
Having finished second for five years she lashed out at her critics with "Don't dis my ability" at the Calypso Quarter-finals. Asking the judges not to disrespect her aptitude as a calypsonian, Tempest stormed into the finals last Saturday.
The candid piece narrates her ordeals as a visually challenged singer and reveals a side of the calypsonian that desires the monarchy for the second time.
In 1995, Tempest copped the title of Calypso Monarch with "Is only talk". The political piece was a witty commentary on the early Jagan years after the party won in 1992. It saw Tempest to victory and became a hit.
Two years earlier Tempest whose name is Camille Goliah-Basdeo entered the calypso arena and sang her way into the semi-finals with "Rewrite dem History Books".
Though the song failed to make finals that year it was Tempest's claim to fame early in her career. Asserting that local history is often taught in schools from the oppressor's point of view, the song called on Guyanese to embrace history around them.
Tempest told Stabroek News that fellow calypsonian Ayambo had composed the piece for which she won instant acclaim. She pointed out that Ayambo wrote many of the pieces she performed up until 2001 when she turned to composing.
Revealing the real story behind her song this year, Tempest said she had felt at home on the scene until another calypsonian hurled words of bigotry at her three years ago.
Auditions were held to make the cut for the quarter-finals that year and Tempest along with two other visually challenged calypsonians were successful in their bids. As she was making her way out of the building, a calypsonian whom she had respected voiced his disapproval at failing to get in.
She recalled the man said, "It is better they [selectors] had brought the blind institute… they seem to be taking over".
Jolted by the comment, Tempest said she passed it off as a joke and left the compound facing a new reality: there were issues behind the acceptance of blind calypsonians in the arena.
"I am behind the music not my sight. When it comes to competing, I judge people on talent. I have overcome and year go year come I keep proving my critics wrong," she asserted.
Slamming the comment and the disrespect, Tempest went on to do "Survival of the Fittest" last year and lost to VJ in the finals. The song looked at the troubles plaguing the nation during that period and highlighted the anguish that gripped those who suffered as a consequence.
Audiences related to the piece when she first performed it and unofficial results were that Tempest had won the semi-final leg of the competition. She went on to pull off a near-perfect performance at the finals and like many in attendance, Tempest thought she had dethroned Monarch VJ.
Minutes later, she crashed to defeat when VJ retained his title and scored yet another second-place finish. The third consecutive miss, Tempest said, brought her to the painful view that she was being pushed aside because she is differently able.
One of two visually challenged calypsonians left on the scene and the lone female, Tempest is beginning to question the level of respect shown to her.
Regarded as a talented practitioner of the art-form, Tempest said she seldom feels trampled upon in the arena.
And for those who see only a blind calypsonian, Tempest boasts strong finishes in almost every competition she has contested.
Few know Tempest the artist and the accountant. Before turning to calypso, she targeted the canvas and was often armed with paint and a brush. Much earlier, it was accounting ledgers.
After losing her sight, calypso called her and she answered. In the months that followed, she grappled with blindness and her new-found love for social commentary.
Not wanting to be sidelined again Tempest is going after the monarchy when the finals are staged today at Bartica.