Kamla rejects censorship claims at Dimanche Gras

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has responded to claims of censorship at Sunday’s Dimanche Gras, saying on social media that calypso does not need to be censored because political actors posing as calypsonians have alienated audiences with divisive content over the years.

“Sorry to break this news to my loving and dedicated haters but NO one has to censor calypso because over the years, political stooges masquerading as calypsonians censored calypso themselves by alienating the majority of the population with their hateful diatribes,” Persad-Bissessar said.

She praised Terri Lyons and Yung Bredda for keeping the art form grounded in social consciousness, calling Lyons’ 2026 Calypso Monarch win “emotional, real, inspiring, and unifying,” and urged citizens to celebrate her victory rather than chasing political conspiracies.

TTT Limited apologised for the audio interruption during Helon Francis’ performance of Doh Forget, attributing it to a Dante system failure and restoring the signal around 10:45 p.m. Meanwhile, during a WACK 90.1 FM livestream, a man whispered, “we muted Helon’s mic on TTT,” prompting the announcer to stress that WACK is “where Calypsos are played.”

Former Prime Minister Stuart Young criticised the incident on Facebook, calling the loss of audio “disturbing at minimum and censorship, akin to dictatorship, at the next level.”