ELEVEN years ago, he touched the soul of a nation with Another Flambeau, a pore-raising lament for the country’s then escalating murder rate.
The calypso, which revisited the heinous killing of schoolgirl Keyanna Cumberbatch in Maloney in 2013, earned Bevon St Clair the Young Kings crown and $100,000 in 2014.
It also made audiences take notice of his penchant for highlighting the country’s social ills via the artform.
More than a decade later, crime still remains a critical social issue in Trinidad and Tobago.
But this year St Clair, 37, has opted not to focus on the scourge but the other issues confronting average citizens: the high cost of living; poor wages; the perceived apathy of politicians; and the feelings of despair and helplessness which many people are experiencing.
St Clair told Newsday his calypso, From Paycheck to Paycheck, written by Christophe Grant, would definitely resonate with citizens, many of whom, he believes, are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet.
“It is about how the country is going, the ups and downs, the ills the public faces every day,” St Clair said of the song on January 21.
“I wanted a song that captures how a normal person would feel compared to the well-to-do people in the society and how the country is being run because people are really living from paycheque to paycheque.”
I waiting for payday, cause tings dry.
Mouth open cyar even ketch ah fly,
Out de door, ah heading for de bus stop.
Imagine $7 for ah short drop;
How small man surviving
Lord ah want to know.
While dem big boys driving,
Porsche Cayenne fuh so,
Food price in the market,
Have to leave it on the shelf,
While we taking basket,
Dem big boys fixing they self!!!
Set to be released at the end of this month, St Clair is expected to perform the song at the opening of the Kalypso Revue, Arima Velodrome, on February 6. He has been a member of the legendary tent for the past 12 years.
Catchy, relatable and lyrically strong, St Clair is optimistic his 2025 offering, which has three verses, will not only take him to the Calypso Monarch semifinal at Skinner Park, San Fernando, but to the Dimanche Gras show in Port of Spain on March 2.
He said qualifying for the competition is his major focus this carnival season.
“I don’t really enter small competitions again after winning Young Kings. I don’t want to enter and then you are placed low and people who don’t even have the title beat you. I have entered regionals in the past but the standard I am at now, I am totally reluctant to do that.”
St Clair admitted he has been away from the local entertainment spotlight for some time.
After the success of Another Flambeau, he sang Awful, a socio-political commentary, in 2015, which gained some traction.
“After Awful, I started getting opportunities abroad, not with respect to calypso and I took a hiatus for a little bit.”
During that time, he travelled, got married, explored other musical genres, finetuned his craft and did some introspection.
Calypso, he realised,
