"Acting" governor Kristin Breuer, left, and real governor Sarah Tucker look on during Proklaima's performance.
The 2023 Montserrat Calypso Finals, held December 29 at Festival Village in Little Bay, featured four former monarchs with a total of 16 local crowns between them. The group was led by defending champion Keithroy “De Voice” Morson, who was vying for his seventh Montserrat title overall. But in the end, it was the youngest finalist whose performance drew the most applause . . . and controversy.
For his second-round song, Kimari Kirnon – calypso alias “Proklaima” – performed the scathing social commentary Needs An Explanation. Penned by Montserrat-born, Antigua-based calypsonian Eugene “Kaseba” Silcott, the song is a brutal takedown of the governor, Her Excellency Mrs. Sarah Tucker, who has been criticized for her heavy-handed approach and questionable decisions since taking her post April 6, 2022. The governor is addressed in the song as “Mother Tucker” – a not-so-subtle pejorative that her detractors embrace but others deem over the line.
For Proklaima’s performance of the song, he arranged to have American ex-pat Kristin Breuer play the governor. When he summoned her on stage, Breuer and the real governor both appeared. The crowd went wild. Proklaima gave an expression of surprise, then went into his rendition as the two women looked on, with Breuer seated and Tucker standing next to her.
Some considered the governor’s appearance as an attempt at intimidation, as in, “Here I am now, say it to my face.” But Her Excellency says that was not her intention.
“My participation, like everyone on that evening and throughout the event, was one of good sport and support,” Tucker said in a statement submitted to Montserrat Spotlight from her office. “If you were in the grounds you would have heard the roar of the crowd and know that this song was the top score of the [second] round.”
Kimari “Proklaima” Kirnon salutes as the British national anthem plays before his performance of “Needs An Explanation”.
Kirnon, the son of two-time Montserrat calypso monarch Anderson “King Andy” Kirnon, eventually settled for a second runner-up finish, but many of his fans were still reeling over the governor crashing the performance. Silcott, Proklaima’s writer, posted a statement on social media stating that the governor should apologize to the youngster. One prominent Montserrat social media influencer even stated that the governor should compensate Proklaima financially.
Speaking through a family member, Proklaima says he was not intimidated or distracted at all by the governor’s surprise cameo. In fact, it had the opposite effect. Proklaima, 20, says he was surprised at first but then got energized and confident. It reflected in the fact that he led all the calypsonians in the second round with 705 points.
“I was backing Mr. Kirnon to win, given he had chosen me as his subject.”
Her Excellency Governor Sarah Tucker
The governor was seen tapping her feet to the rhythm and even smiling at times during the performance. And when Proklaima declared that the governor should “Take your Georgie bundle and run!” – both women fled the stage as the crowd went into a frenzy. Mrs. Tucker insists that she took the calypso roasting in stride.
“There is a very long-standing tradition of people being singled out as part of calypso, and that it is not taken to be personal. I understand that whilst I was not even on island there was a huge amount of social media noise that I had banned the song, etc., when at this time I hadn’t even heard it! I was backing Mr. Kirnon to win, given he had chosen me as his subject.”
Mrs. Tucker added: “Calypso is renowned for taking a political stance on various matters. It is up to the writer to decide what he or she believes will get their point across and, of course, in the case of competition will attract the most votes.”
Breuer – who appropriately dubbed herself the “acting” governor – also played Her Excellency later in the show when eventual calypso monarch Garnett “Sylk” Thompson performed Self-Determination. “De Voice” finished first-runner up, falling short of becoming the first in Montserrat history to win four crowns in a row.
First time commenting although I’ve read quite a few of your articles. Thank you for informing me of things I didn’t know, or only had half the story about, for filling in the blanks, and keeping me updated especially about our elder ones as they sadly leave us.
Keep writing. You have a gift.
Mr. Martin surely you are not so gullible as to accept that nonsensical explanation.
The Governor was not invited and quite literally bum rushed the stage. The fact that Proklaimer did not buckle to the naked attempt at intimidation is commendable on his part. However, the Governor was not part of his act and she therefore had no idea whether other things were to happen onstage that she would have gotten in the way of. So what if Proklaimer was in fact fazed by her appearance and muffed his lines or worse? What then?
So Mr Martin, and all who want to accept the silly explanation; it is not the outcome of the stage invasion that we should be concerned with, it is the action itself. Are we saying that it is now OK for anyone who wants someone to win to rush up onto the stage uninvited? Or are you suggesting that an uninvited entry into a performance should be reserved for the Governor only? Who is authorised to do this going forward? Think on it mate.
Did we not just witness a public demonstration of the very high-handed and interfering attitude that the song was complaining about? Are you OK with that? Proklaimer should actually have been marked down for having two Governors onstage at the same time, because that made no sense whatsoever.
Red Ride had a skit before his song started… suppose an excited member of the audience identified with his topic and decided to go and sit on the bed on the stage with them? We all would have no doubt branded that person either drunk or crazy and you would have no doubt stopped and had them removed.
Suppose Proklaimer’s dad took a different approach in the moment and stopped the performance to have the Governor removed? What a fiasco that would have been and who knows what it would have led to.
Going along with the Governor and accepting her blatant manifestation of white privilege is a tragic mistake. Not a single other soul in Montserrat would have gotten away with it.
But let us look at it how the Governor tricked you into portraying it.
So she loved the song and wanted the young man to win… she also thought that her uninvited presence on the stage would contribute to him winning. Is that acceptable?
Here we have an individual who is prepared to use and abuse her status to influence the outcome of a competition. Here she is boasting that because of her presence he got the highest score in that round. Here she is revelling in what she presumably thought was applause for her.
Do you see how very wrong such an unsolicited intervention is Mr Martin? Did you did not stop to contemplate how this demonstrates and underscores the accusation of habitual overreach in all aspects of government in Montserrat. And now she is intervening in our cultural expressions, are there no boundaries she respects?
The Governor thinks that her views should trump everyone else’s in Montserrat. And here you are giving her a pass?
It seemingly has not even occurred to you and others that up to now she has not answered a single one of the questions posed by Proklaimer in his very serious Calypso. It was not meant to be a pappyshow and explanations are still required. Perhaps the proper journalist in you could go back and ask her some of those questions pointedly.
While you are at it, hand her the lyrics to the songs from the winner of the competition, just so she knows exactly how the people of Montserrat feel about her.
Good day sir and thanks for your response. If you read the story carefully you will clearly see that I presented the facts and the response from the Governor’s office. I did not render an opinion on whether she was being truthful or not. That is left to the public to decide. Thanks again for your feedback.
[…] the sobriquet “Proklaima”, is “Needs an Explanation” – described in Montserrat Spotlight as “a brutal takedown of the governor, Her Excellency Mrs. Sarah Tucker, who was criticized […]