BY HOWARD CAMPBELL Observer senior writer —
Denyse Plummer
A thanksgiving service is scheduled for Wednesday in celebration of the life of Trinidadian calypso/soca queen Denyse Plummer, who died on August 27.
The service will take place at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, northern Trinidad.
Plummer was a fixture at Jamaica Carnival during the 1990s.
A close friend of band leader Byron Lee, her song Carnival Killer was inspired by his groundbreaking soca event in Jamaica.
The 69 year-old Plummer was known for her outrageous costumes and high-energy shows.
She died from breast cancer.
Julianne Lee, Byron Lee’s daughter, told the Jamaica Observer that her father first met Plummer in the mid-1980s while in Trinidad for Carnival with his Dragonaires band. He invited her to his fledgling Jamaica Carnival and, after her 1990 début, she became a regular.
“She did befriend quite a few Jamaicans and spent a stint here writing an album and recording an album. She was a wonderful lady, fabulous and easy to approach,” said Lee.
She also toured North America with the Dragonaires during the 1990s.
Born in Port of Spain, Plummer emerged in the late 1980s when soca was taking off. In 1987 she placed third in the National Calypso Competition. The following year Plummer reached the National Calypso Monarch finals and won the Calypso Queen crown.
In 2001 she won the Calypso Crown with the songs Heroes and Nah Leaving, two of her biggest hits.
Plummer’s high-energy performances set the tone for a new wave of female soca artistes, including her countrywoman Destra Garcia, who thanked her on social media “for being an inspiration and opening so many doors worldwide for the rest of us women…”
Denyse Plummer is survived by her husband and two sons.
You must log in to post a comment.