SINGER and songwriter Gillian Moor (Fire Tender) has secured a spot in the the 2024 NWAC Calypso Queen Finals.
On January 21st, at the Queen’s Hall, Moor will perform her composition ‘Fire Tender Coming Down’. Her second calypso, ‘The Horn Player’, has also landed her a place on the Kalypso Revue roster.
Moor, known as half of the 90s rapso group Homefront with Ozy Merrique (remember the song ‘Give Yuhself a Chance’ (‘Free Yuhself’?) and her Trini-folk/alternative performances, surprised many when she entered the calypso arena. Moor was also the promoter of the long-running open-mic series, Songshine and has worked as a newspaper writer and editor, which she said ‘gave me a front-row seat to many, many cultural performances and cultural settings’.
It was her return to school that let the singer to calypso. She says: ‘In 2022, I started doing my Master’s in Carnival Arts at the University of Trinidad and Tobago. I was inspired by our professors, like Dr Hollis Liverpool (Mighty Chalkdust), Dr Rudolph Ottley, Dr Kela Francis, and my calypso composition teacher, Krisson Joseph, who brought deep knowledge, passion and perspective to the story of our Carnival.
‘I’ve always loved our culture. ‘I was raised on old-time calypso. But during this course of study, I have been so moved by the transcendent resourcefulness of our people; the fascinating history of our art forms; and the bitter trials our ancestors went through to maintain them,’ she said.
Moor’s stage name, Fire Tender, was inspired by the Fantasy sailor ‘who stokes the fires of calypso,’ she told Kitharee.
‘Our Carnival arts are so precious, yet they are often trivialised and so little understood. I wanted to do my part.’ And so, Fire Tender was born, along with the inspiration for her first calypso, a declaration of purpose and homage to kaiso greats. She adds: ‘I want to give my very best to the calypso art form. This feels like the fulfilment of a lifetime love.’ Moor says that writing kaiso is the greatest creative challenge she has met. ‘With its strictures, it is even more demanding than poetry – and so beautiful! It’s the highest form of songwriting I’ve ever attempted.
‘In the past,’ she says, ‘people were killed for demanding their right, their need, their obligation to manifest Carnival. They knew its power. Do we?’
Featured image credit: Gillian Moor’s Facebook page.
