{"id":5915,"date":"2026-02-17T20:40:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:40:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/terri-lyons-crowned-2026-tt-national-calypso-monarch\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T20:40:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T20:40:21","slug":"terri-lyons-crowned-2026-tt-national-calypso-monarch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/17\/terri-lyons-crowned-2026-tt-national-calypso-monarch\/","title":{"rendered":"Terri Lyons crowned 2026 T&amp;T National Calypso Monarch"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>In singing the spiritual \u201cBlessings,\u201d Terri Lyons, the daughter of popular Trinidadian soca legend Austin \u201cSuper Blue\u201d Lyons, Sunday night, Feb. 15, captured the 2026 Trinidad and Tobago National Calypso Monarch.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On her way to regaining the crown she first won in 2020, Lyons dethroned defending monarch Helon Francis, who placed sixth, and 10 other contenders at the Queen&#8217;s Park Savannah during the Dimanche Gras show.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Lyons defeated at least three other erstwhile calypso monarchs, won the judges&#8217; votes and the hearts of calypso fans, and received a sustained standing ovation when the results were announced in the wee hours of Monday morning.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>As a result, Lyons took home the winning purse of TT$1 million (1TT$=US$0.16 cents) and a brand-new KGM Korando Emotion car, courtesy of Lifestyle Motors.<br \/>\n\u201cLyons was the clear favorite on the night with her spiritual song and received a lengthy standing ovation as she copped her second title in six years,\u201d reported the Barbados-based Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>After winning the crown, Lyons told reporters: \u201cThe emotions is (are) that this song is also a deep stem to my mum (the late singer Dionne Phillips), hence the reason why my hair is like this.<br \/>\n\u201cBecause she mourned, and you know, when you mourn, you can\u2019t weave or anything in your hair,\u201d she said.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>For Spiritual Baptists in the Caribbean, mourning is a profound, ritualized ceremony of purification involving isolation, fasting, and intense prayer to induce spiritual visions.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>It is not merely grief, but a transformative process designed to deepen communication with God, foster repentance, and provide spiritual empowerment.<br \/>\n\u201cSo, I decided to plait my hair how she had hers when she went to mourn,\u201d added Lyons, referring to her late mother.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>She described \u201cBlessings\u201d as \u201ca prayer \u2013 bringing all religions together to pray for Trinidad.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThat is the main meaning of the song,\u201d Lyons said. \u201cAll prayer warriors, you don\u2019t have to be a pastor or a priest; you can be the normal John Public in order to strengthen the blessings of Trinidad and Tobago.<br \/>\n\u201cBecause the song is saying we are already blessed, we just need to continue strengthening our blessings,\u201d she added.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On Monday, Super Blue posted on Facebook: \u201cLast night, at the Queen\u2019s Park Savannah, I watched my daughter Terri Lyons give her performance for Calypso Monarch. WOW, I know her mom was watching down at her. I cry to see my daughter take over that stage with so much power. 2026 is Yours.\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>This year\u2019s National Action Cultural Committee Young King Rivaldo London placed second with \u201cWater Thicker,\u201d and nine-time Chutney Soca Monarch Samraj \u201cRikki Jai\u201d Jaimungal took third place.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The full results are: Terri Lyons (Blessings); Rivaldo London (Water Thicker); Rikki Jai (Doh Spoil Meh Name); Yung Bredda (The Messenger); The Calypso Princess (Nobody Wins Until); Helon Francis (Doh Forget); Nicole Thomas-Clarke (Sacrifice); Ta\u2019Zyah O\u2019Connor (Cast Them Away); Giselle \u201cGG\u201d Fraser (No Village Can\u2019t); Freetown Collective (Calypso); Kerice Pascall (No Conscience); and Roslyn Reid-Hayes (Calypso Calling Me).<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In singing the spiritual \u201cBlessings,\u201d Terri Lyons, the daughter of popular Trinidadian soca legend Austin \u201cSuper Blue\u201d Lyons, Sunday night, Feb. 15, captured the 2026 Trinidad and Tobago National Calypso Monarch. On her way to regaining the crown she first won in 2020, Lyons dethroned defending monarch Helon Francis, who placed sixth, and 10 other [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islandflavaradio.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}