Mighty Sparrow (real name Slinger Francisco) is a Calypsosinger, songwriter, and guitarist. He was born in Grenada on July 9, 1935, but moved to Trinidad at a young age. In 1956, he won that year's Carnival Road March Competition with his most famous song, "Jean and Dinah." His prize was $40, and in protest of the small sum, he wrote "Carnival Boycott" the following year, a song which spoke out against Trinidad's carnival industry. Sparrow refused to participate in the Carnival Road March for the next three years, but still became one of the Caribbean's most successful artists.
THE MIGHTYSparrow closed off a night of sheer verbal artistry at the Mas Camp, New Kingston on Saturday night with nimble words from his lips and flexible prods from his hips.
Sparrow seemed to turn time in the same direction as the blue cap reversed on his head on a night when he opened with the classic Jean and Dinah and closed with Don' Do Dat which is exactly what the dwindling audience asked him not to do.
There were probably three classic Sparrow moments that night which went beyond being simply snippets of performance to defining a man who looked and performed as if he was much younger than the 48 years in music he was celebrating.
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