De Nacheal Wins Junior Crown

Sixteen year old Isaiah Thomas Secondary School's (ITSS) Nacheal "De Nacheal" Walsh has dethroned Janae Jackson to become the new Junior Calypso Monarch. Walsh is in her final year of competition at that level and will not defend her title next year.

She won from a field of 15 competitors with her rendition "On the Brink" written by Tim Durand. In 2012, Jackson won the title and Walsh took the first place, but this year the positions were reversed- Walsh was crowned and Jackson placed first.

Jackson sang "Month End" written by her dad, Ian Jackson; she was followed by Lemar "De Irish Kid" Irish from the St John's Academy with "Endangered Spices" written by Livingston 'Spencer" Cassel; Phael Lander "Mighty P" of SMA with "Crank it up" written by Norman "Ency" Cyrille came next in the importance. Irish Kid, a crowd favourite, sang his social commentary with passion warning that if the youth did not heed his message they would soon become "an endangered spices" while Janae advised kids on the timing of making requests of their parents.

"Everything is month end….doh ask your parents for things before that," she stated.

Dressed as a nun, Nacheal sang that although Dominica is a land with so much promise, yet we were "on the edge of a precipice" and suffering from moral decay. She mentioned the young girls who were recently involved in a pornographic video saying that this had brought them down in society.

"I see youths going astray…..nightmare along with social and moral decay," she sang.

In an interview after the competition Walsh said she was still surprised.

"I still can't believe it. I know that I had the potential to do very well but I thought that I had competition," she said "The Irish Kid was very good and I thought that Janae would have regained her crown."

"It was an interesting competition," she added. "I had lots of fun and enjoyed every bit of it. I have been singing for five years and this year was my last year in this competition and now I have been crowned. I think that while I would have done a bit more I am satisfied with my performance. I practiced my song and so just went there and did my stuff."

She said her goal was to send out her message clearly and forcefully.

"So I came dressed as a nun. Nuns are calm people and they send out messages, so I was determined to send that message out. I wanted that crown bad, 110%," she said.

She warned the senior calypsonians that she is coming with a "force."

"Next year I can tell you look out for me in the senior competition and I know if I was in that competition this year with that song I would have been the woman going through to the finals," she said. "My school has been very supportive of me along with Linden Lestrade, Dice and my great writer Tim Durand."

The Leo Club of Dominica organised the show held at the Krazy Coconuts.