Calypsonian Roxanne Louisette Webster (right) with her lawyer Nancy Joubert (left) after Friday’s court hearing.
PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance will decide today, Monday, whether St. Maarten Carnival Development Foundation (SCDF) and Soualiga Kaiso Artistes Foundation (SKAF) have to admit singer Roxanne “Roxxy” Louisette Webster to the 2023 NAGICO Senior Calypso Finals scheduled for Wednesday, April 26, at Jocelyn Arndell Festival Village.
The judge in the Court of First Instance announced this at the end of the hearing of summary proceedings filed by the artiste against the two foundations. The judge will give his judgment in this case today, at 5:00pm the latest, the judge said Friday afternoon, but not before he had asked the parties involved if they saw any possibilities to settle their differences of opinion amiably. However, this was not the case as parties were not willing to compromise.
Roxxy was disqualified during the senior calypso eliminations featuring 15 singers, 10 of whom made it through to the calypso finals. However, of the original 10 who made it, SCDF said Roxxy and King Barrow were to be replaced because their songs had been performed before and did not fit SCDF’s “originality” criteria and regional norms used to judge calypso.
Her dismissal was the combined decision of SKAF and SCDF which advised that her song “Woman doing that too” had been entered in a previous calypso competition.
This song was performed at a female regional competition in December 2022, which consisted of women only and was not a national calypso competition.
During Friday’s legal proceedings, Roxxy’s lawyer Nancy Joubert questioned whether a song composed in July 2022 and used as part of a talent segment for a pageant was invalid to be used for the 2023 Calypso Monarch competition.
“A song sung in a competition outside of St. Maarten in December of last year, having never been entered before or was never utilised in any of our national monarch competitions, is now rendered used or old,” Webster questioned.
According to the singer, it was SCDF’s responsibility to ensure that, on registration, a copy of the competition’s rules and regulations is given to all contestants, but this was not done, nor were they informed about any “originality criteria”.
Therefore, there was no legal basis for Webster’s disqualification, her lawyer stated. “Webster would very much like to participate in Wednesday’s finals,” Joubert said. The lawyer attached a penalty to her claim equal to the top monetary prize in the calypso competition.
“The SCDF has allowed each participant, through participation in the eliminations, to have a legitimate expectation to go on to be crowned winner of its competition. Once you would have been successfully allowed to register, enter, compete and progress, this expectation by all participants cannot be taken away by the SCDF for any reason, other than not having progressed from the elimination stage of the competition,” Webster stated earlier.
SCDF was represented in the injunction by president Edwardo Radjouki and former president Alston Lourens. SKAF’s board was also present, headed by vice-president Leroy “King Beau Beau” Brooks. SKAF represents the interests of the artistes performing in the calypso competition.
Former SKAF secretary Webster was well aware of the judging criteria, SCDF and SKAF maintained. Webster has been competing in the calypso competition from when she was a teenager, and should have been aware of the criteria, which have not changed since the 1990s, their lawyer said. Claims to overturn Webster’s disqualification and the claims for damages should be rejected because she had failed to meet the originality criteria, SCDF and SKAF maintained.
