Terri Lyons is stepping into Carnival 2024 full of vibes!
The 2020 Calypso Monarch will be performing at the Calypso Revue from January 19 at Arima Velodrome, 20 at SWWTU Hall in Port of Spain and at SAP, San Fernando on January 21st and has a number of songs released for the season already. Today, she is scheduled to release her first-ever pan song, entitled “Play Pan MAN”, which was co-written by Kernal Roberts and was inspired by her son who is playing with NGC Joylanders for Panorama.
“To be honest, I wasn’t a big pan person – I respect it as our National Instrument, but from seeing my son playing and being so enthusiastic about it, I started learning more from him.” She enthused. “He literally came home and was playing pan in the air and calling out notes and he would dedicate his time to learning music and pan. My dad is the pan-lover and he’s in love with it like the next Boogsie Sharpe or something. I never did a pan song before so I went to Kernal with my ideas of how I wanted the song to be and he helped me. That will be released today.”
Lyons’ also has a number of Soca contributions for 2024, including: “Bad & Dread”, which was produced by Aaron Duncan.
“It’s his first riddim so I supported him and created a very nice song.” She explained. “It’s not getting played enough, but I will blast it again cause maybe I released it too early, but everyone who’s heard it, loves it.”
“Tabanca” was produced by Kit Israel and includes Etienne Charles. Lyons expressed her excitement about collaborating with one of world-renowned musicians:
“It’s an out-of-the-box song that is like Jazz-Soca and sets a mood. I always wanted to do a Soca song that could give you another mood aside from jumping and waving and this is definitely that different sound. He wrote it and we did it together and I hope the people get to hear it and enjoy it.”
Lyons has also collaborated with DJ/Producer Private Ryan on another release entitled “No Drama”.
“I always do stuff with Private Ryan every year and he always gives me something unique and different and this is a Soca/Afrobeats kind of collaboration.
Her final contribution thus far is a feature on “Give Thanks For Life”, which is sung by Mr Lee and “really speaks to my personality and what I believe we should all be doing on a daily basis, which is expressing gratitude for life”.
Aside from the music, Lyons has jumped straight into being an entrepreneur and launched her own line of Monday or Fete Wear branded as “Fete-Ish” for the females and “I Am Lion” for the males, as part of Maria Bhola’s “bholdesigns” and she was invited by The Lost Tribe to showcase her designs
Lyons recently won the “Queen of Queens” Monarch title in Montserrat for two years in a row 2022 and 2023. Staged by the Montserrat Arts Council as Directed by Kenneth “Rabo” Silcott, the competition aims to crown the Queen of the Caribbean region annually and invites the top female winners from the islands. Lyon’ well-attended “I am Lion ” concert is also scheduled for later this year, but you can catch her at “Ladies Night Out” and she will be performing in Dimanche Gras on Carnival Sunday night as well.
In 2010 she won Best local Actress after acting for the first time ever for a short called “No Soca, No Life”, which has now evolved into a longer film entitled “Queen of Soca” that should be released later in 2024.“One of my biggest goals for 2024 is to see my son playing pan and jump up and get on like a groupie,” she enthused. “He also plays percussion for the Couva Anglican Primary School band. He has asked me not to embarrass him for Panorama but I already told him I cannot promise that… lols.
”Follow @terrilyons82 on IG for more on this Carnival Queen.
