Karessah wins Calypso Monarch 2017, making him four times Calypso Champion like ‘De Ency’ & ‘Solo’

​Gregory ‘Karessah’ Riviere won the 2017 Calypso Monarch, at the Eddie Andre Carnival City on Sunday morning, 25th February 2017. Karessah won in a field of ten competitors. He was crowned by Miss Dominica 2017, Jade Romain.
 
He has now won four calypso monarch titles, and joins the ‘Mighty Solo’ and ‘De Ency’ as the other two Dominican calypsonians to have won four crowns. Karessah had previously won the title in 2009, 2010 and 2015.

​He won on Sunday night with two well composed, effectively masked calypsos; ‘Hooked in A Minor Key’ and ‘Second Round’. The judges’ decided that he had outperformed the nine other calypsonians.
 
Phenomenal Eight-time Monarch “King Dice” did not find favour with the judges in 2017, to obtain a ninth crown. He tied with ‘Daddy Chess’ for second place. ‘Webb’ placed fourth in the competition.
 
The other calypsonians who competed in 2017 were Genius, Stephan, Bobb, Jaydee, Janae, and Tasha P.
 
The judges were Patrick Pemberton, head judge; Celia Maxwell, Trudy Christian, Reginald La Fleur, Michael Augustine, Evelina Baptiste, Marlon Marie, and Monsignor Eustace Thomas.
 
Meanwhile, in Trinidad & Tobago, veteran calypsonian ‘The Mighty Chalkdust’ won the Calypso crown for a record ninth time, with his song entitled “learn from Arithmetic” which emphasizes that ‘75 can’t go into 14’, making reference to the phenomenon of much older men engaging in marriages with very younger girls, that has increasingly been taking place in that twin Island republic. Chalkdust has now overtaken the old record set by the Mighty Sparrow, who the T & T calypso crown 8 times.