Calypso Rose sure has style and zeal, and her 2016 album, Far From Home, goes to prove it. Much loved and made with the support and blessing of Manu Chao, Far From Home was well worthy of the praise and its victory at the Victoires de la Musique French music awards. And now she’s back with a new album, So, Calypso!

There’s no doubt about it, as the self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Calypso’, calypso is her thing and no one has ever come close to dethroning her. She remains the voice of this musical style originating from Trinidad and Tobago and standing out in a traditionally male dominated musical world she’s very much a contemporary emblematic figure in the fight for women’s rights.

For her new album, with a back catalogue of more than 800 songs and 22 albums, the 78-year-old Tobagonian diva decided to go back to the start, and re-record a number of her career defining numbers and cover songs from those artists which have inspired and continue to inspire her, like Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin, The Melodians and Angélique Kidjo. Common to all the covers, be they from American, Jamaican and African artists, is they all share their sentiment with Calypso Rose’s social and musical values.

For example, Calypso Rose has covered Nat King Cole’s Calypso Blues. Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1919, the piano-playing crooner, who took a stand against racism and segregation, wrote the song in 1949. Nat King Cole embraced the cause of all North Americans who came from other lands, from Africans to Caribbean people and Hispanics. Calypso Blues (lyrics by Don George, accompanied by Duke Ellington) simply tore apart American ideals, praising the wonders of papaya juice and shrimp and rice over hot-dogs, the douceur de vivre without a dollar to your name, and the virtues of Trinidadian women over icy blondes.