Trinidad and Tobago has just concluded its first full Carnival in three years and voted as Band of the Year is one of the event’s newest contestants.
The Lost Tribe’s ‘202WE’ presentation was voted large Band of the Year, the National Carnival Commission has announced. The seven-year-old band also won the title in 2019.
Valmiki Maharaj, The Lost Tribe’s bandleader, said: “After the three years and after the years we have had leading up to this Carnival, to say it is hard, would be the understatement of the year. This is both unexpected and the most welcome happening ever.”
Maharaj said he felt blessed and thankful. He dedicated the win to Carnival’s unsung heroes whom he described as “every producer, road manager, bar person and vendor – who were struggling the last couple of months leading up to the national festival”.
Maharaj said there were moments he did not know if the band was going to make it. “Emotionally, coming out of the pandemic, there were a lot of restarting and teething issues. I think generally the world coming out of this act of God global crisis left us as bandleaders and as Carnival practitioners, with a lot of challenges.”
He also thanked the masqueraders saying: “We make the costumes but the costume is a body and the masquerade is the soul.”
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