AARON DUNCAN is just seven years old, but this Trinidad and Tobago 2010 Junior Calypso Monarch has the right attitude, moves and diction to capture the attention of his audience when he is onstage. Were he in Barbados, Aaron could not even be in competition; he would have to wait until he was eight! He impressed hundreds of patrons of the Barbados Junior Monarch competition last Saturday evening with a powerful rendition of Doh Waste It. Home in Trinidad, Aaron’s opponents were between the ages of five and 19. After singing the song, with which he won the competition, this “little man” was asked if we would talk with WE. “No problem, but I would like to sit, please”, Aaron said. He started his singing career at the age of two, when he was backup singer for his sister Jaylene Bryan, a young budding calypsonian herself.
Apparently, anywhere Jaylene went to sing, Aaron would back her up. “Sometimes he wanted to sing her whole song; he would take away her mike and sing the song if she let him,” said his mum who accompanied him. Aaron, who won four other junior competitions last Carnival, said he liked calypso “because it lets you sing songs and it’s so nice. You can win competitions with it and all kind of stuff”.
The young monarch, who comes from “a family full of singers”, said that “in Trinidad that competition was very hard. But I believed in myself, prayed to God and I went on that stage, perform my best and I still won.” The singer who never gets nerves on stage said what he liked about Barbados was having “my own room, and it is the best place ever! I like it so much”. Aaron, who was six at the time of winning the contest, remembered every word of the five-verse song written by Larry Yearwood. (AH)
