Despite wet and gloomy weather conditions, more than 40 students came out for the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians' Organisation (TUCO) Junior Calypso Monarch North zone preliminaries held at City Hall, Port of Spain, on Sunday.

Scheduled for 10 a.m., the competition got off to a rocky start as contestants, along with their parents, teachers and friends, were waiting approximately an hour before the show could proceed due to technical difficulties, according to chairperson of the Junior Calypso Committee, Thora Best.

Unfortunately things did not look up from there. The first contestant, Jumaane Cox from Queen's Royal College, was disqualified from the competition for using voices on his CD. According to Best, it is clearly stated in the rules that no contestant should have voices on their track because it is hard for the judges to determine if the voice was a child's or not.

The contestants, whose ages ranged from five to 18 years old, sang on various topics such as "Police Brutality", "National Pride", "Ole Time Days", "Box lunch", "The Power of Prayer", "Poverty" and "Bring Back Peace", to name a few.

It seemed that the damp conditions outside and the cold environment inside the air-conditioned auditorium proved to be a challenge for some of the contestants who had trouble hitting their notes. For some of the contestants this was their first time in the competition.

Singing her song "Parents", composed by Gilbert John, nine-year-old Bellini John from Newtown Girls' RC and seven-year-old Stephen McKenna, who sang "Old Stupid Calypso" from Tranquillity Government Primary, had the audience singing along to their respective songs.

Best said, "The judges will be looking at lyrics, music and presentation."

As the competition progressed through the day there were already a few "favourites" based on crowd response.

Joshua Ali, 11, from Point Cumana Government Primary School, had the audiences in stitches, singing an anti-violence song entitled "Meh Granny".

Another favourite was five-year-old Raycheal Grant from St Barbs Government Primary School, the youngest competitor in the preliminary round of the competition. Grant sang a humorous calypso composed by Roderick Yearwood entitled "Private Practice".

Getting the nod from the audience was seven-year-old Atiya Alleng from Madressa Al Muslimeen School singing "Black boy yuh is ah target."

Another favourite was Aliiyah Alleng, 13, from Mucurapo West Secondary School singing "Doh Blame Me". The talent was very evident within this family as 16-year-old Alesha Alleng from East Mucurapo Secondary School had the crowd waving their hands to her song "We Need Ah Healing", composed by Anson Alleng.

Yesterday the Tobago Zone Junior Calypso Monarch prelims were held at Fairfield Complex, Tobago. This Saturday is the TUCO East Zone Junior Monarch prelims at La Joya Complex, St Joseph.