Calypso Rose or Linda McCartha Monica Sandy-Lewis (born April 27, 1940 in Bethel Village, Tobago) started writing songs at the age of 13; over the years, she has composed more than 1000 songs and recorded more than 20 albums. Considered the "mother of calypso", Rose was the first female calypso star and her lyrics frequently address social issues like racism and sexism. Her influence over the calypso music genre forced the renaming of the Calypso King competition to the Calypso Monarch instead. In 2012 at Chutney Pride, Calypso Rose revealed that she is a member of the LGBT community and has been married to a woman for 17 years. In addition to writing songs about social issues, Rose is also an activist and was given the title of UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for former child soldiers along with performing at numerous events for social change.
At the beginning of her music career, the singer originally took the name Crusoe Kid but later changed it to Calypso Rose. This occurred when she auditioned for the managers of a calypso tent called Young Brigade. The name Crusoe Kid was meant to signify her origins in Tobago, and a reference to the novel Robinson Crusoe. After hearing her perform, the managers at Young Brigade renamed her Calypso Rose because a rose is considered the mother of all flowers and she considers herself the mother of female calypsonians that came after her. She grew up in a small village on the island of Tobago called Bethel, one of the two Caribbean islands forming Trinidad and Tobago and the birthplace of calypso.
When she went to live with her uncle and aunt, her aunt was a big influence on her love of calypsos because of the many records that she owned and the freedom she would give her. Rose then began to write her first calypso called "Glass Thief" which signified her shock to Trinidad after her aunt gave her money and told her to go to the market when she saw boys stealing glasses from someone's eye. This was the start of her voicing her opinion on gender equality and later on writing her second calypso that empowered women to dance. Calypso Rose began singing at calypso tents in the 1950s at the age of 15 going against her harsh critics, and had the opportunity to perform in different places from Grenada, St. Vincent to the US Virgin Islands .From 1963 to 1965, she would continue to perform in his tent. She knew Lord Kitchener from the age of 9 and he was known for his in fluence on many young calypso singers because of the songs he would make. Even with many of the religious elders in Trinidad's disapproval for Rose's participation in calypsos, she was able to win them over with her song "Abide With Me" which is about hurricane Florence that hit Tobago and Grenada in 1964. In 1966 she would perform with a very well known calypsonian in many occasions by the name of the 'Mighty Sparrow' (Slinger Francisco). With her song "Cooperation", she was able to compete outside of Tobago and Trinidad against other male calypsonians and win her first tile as Calypso King in the Virgin Islands and win Virgin Island's Road March in the same year. In 1966, she wrote the song "Fire in Meh Wire" that had gone international and was translated into eight different languages, and was the first calypso to run two years in a row at the Trinidad Carnival.
With the making of another song called "Tempo", Rose was able to become the first female to win the national Road March title. Soon after, in 1978, she performed "Her Majesty" and "I Thank Thee" and was able to win another national Road March and became the first to win Calypso King which changed to Calypso Monarch because of the successful integration of females in a male-dominated competition. In 2016 she released a song titled "Calypso Queen" in which she confirms her reign.
With Rose's success she was able to work alongside many artists. One of many would be Bob Marley and Micheal Jackson. In 1967, Rose and Marley performed together in the Grand Ballroom in New York City and later they got to perform together once again in Miami. Rose's relationship with Marley was very close that she named him her inspiration. Other music legends that she got to meet are Michael Jackson and Miriam Makeba in 1978 when she won Trinidad Road March. Her album "Far From Home" led her to collaborate with French/Spanish singer Manu Chao who sang three songs from her album 'Leave Me Alone", "Far From Home", and "Human Race". The album was produced by Ivan Duran. The two were first introduced when her manager, Mr. Jean Micheal invited Chao to the Carnival season in 2015 where Calypso Rose recounted that they spoke for 3 hours about music. She gave him an early copy of the album which he later mixed and added in his own vocals. Calypso Rose has continued to collaborate with other artists. One of her recent collaborations was with Machel Montano in a song called "Young Boy". Another one would be with Kobo Town in a song called "Scarborough Girl" in 2018 with home she performed with in 2019, and helped co-write some of her songs from her album "Far From Home". Calypso Rose is still actively writing new music, even telling a reporter that she carries around a tape recorder with her to keep track of her ideas. In October 2019, she released a song titled "Baila Mami" from the new Calypso Rose & Friends EP featuring Nailah Blackman, Lao Ra, Manu Chao, Machel Montano, Patrice, Tim Armstrong & The Interrupters and King Doudou. The song is a mix of Spanish and English encouraging women to break free and dance.
