2004 Calendar - March

Lady B was the first of the United Sisters to enter the calypso arena. At age 17, already a veteran Best Village performer, she joined the Tobago Young Brigade before travelling to Trinidad to join the Original Young Brigade and eventually Kaiso House. She won the National Calypso Queen competition in 1986 and competed in the National Semis on some 20 odd occasions. She was a clever composer and was known for her scathing political lyrics.

From representing the village of Penal-Fyzabad, Marvellous Marva (Marva Joseph) invaded the calypso world in 1979 at Sparrow’s Young Brigade with Hall of Fame. Always a force to be reckoned with, she contested several Queen and National competitions without gaining the highest accolade. She always impressed though, with her positive stage presence and distinctive voice.

The baby of the group, Tigress (Joanne Rowley) made her debut in 1988. She was promptly voted the most promising female and made it to the National Finals. Her Pound for Pound demonstrated her fighting spirit and would prove to be her trademark. Blessed with as powerful a voice as her shapely frame, she earned a creditable second place later that year in the Caribbean Song Festival and continued to justify the expectations of the calypso cognoscenti.

The most successful of this awesome foursome is undoubtedly Singing Sandra (Sandra Des Vignes). From a relatively inauspicious start in 1984 she quickly rose to prominence three years later with the classic Sexy Employers (a.k.a. Die with my Dignity). She won both the National Calypso Queen and the Queen of the World competition in St. Maarten. Her signal achievement was the copping of the National Calypso Monarch title in 1999 singing Voices from the Ghetto & Song of Healing, to become the second female to rise to that pinnacle. Remarkably she repeated this feat in 2003 singing For whom the bell tolls and Ancient Rhythms.

These four women, all Best Village graduates, joined forces in 1991 to become the United Sisters. That year they won the National Song Festival and placed 2nd in the Caribbean Song Festival singing Ambataila Woman. Their career climaxed with Whoa Donkey in 1993. In the late nineties Tigress migrated and the other sisters concentrated on their solo career. Lady B, a true true calypsonian and ambataila woman passed away in September 2001.