Calypso Rose

Calypso Rose has never truly left the stage. Since her last album, Far From Home (2016), the queen of Trinidad and Tobago has performed over two hundred shows in four years — from Les Vieilles Charrues to Coachella, and even L’Olympia. At over 80 years old, her energy commands respect. She has won over a younger audience, received a Victoire de la Musique in 2017, and was named Chevalier of Arts and Letters in 2020 — the ultimate recognition from a country that has always celebrated her.

Her music is recognizable by its subtle blend of Caribbean tradition and modernity, pure sounds she updates without ever distorting them. Beneath the hedonism and celebration, her songs carry powerful messages, particularly about the role of women in the societies she passes through — from Trinidad to Belize, New York to Paris.

Born in Tobago to a fisherman father and a homemaker mother, Calypso Rose established herself in the 1960s as an iconic figure of Caribbean sound. With early hits like Fire In Me Wire (1966), collaborations alongside Bob Marley & The Wailers, and her title as Road March Queen at the Trinidad Carnival, she now holds an indispensable place in the pantheon of island music.