by YVETTE BEST

Legal concerns about songs gave some competitors an additional hump to get over at that Pic-O-De-CropSemi-finals on Friday night.

Four of the 18 calypsonians in the Banks/Lime Pic-O-De-Crop competition at the gymnasium of the Garfield Sobers Sports Complex were under legal review by National Cultural Foundation (NCF) lawyers.

TC and Ishiaka told the SUNDAY SUN they were informed less than 24 hours before they were scheduled to compete, while Ras Iley said he was with his lawyers from after 3 p.m.on Thursday up to midnight,trying to sort out problems with Doan Let Kaiso Die.

“They actually wanted six lines changed, we had to fight it. I had to go for lawyers [Friday]; we spent over three hours with the NCF lawyer and our lawyer. So I would basically say it was a win for us, since things remain more or less the same.

“All that it did [was] put me through a lot of stress rather than rest up, and concentrating, having to really deal with lawyers to get that problem sorted out,” Ras Ileysaid, adding that two words were eventually adjusted.
De Big Show singer said he submitted his lyrics on Monday and he had a “serious problem” with being asked to change his lyrics a day before competing.

Ishiaka said he was informed about the legal issues with parts of No Names after 10 p.m. on Thursday night.
“I told the person that called me ‘you calling me at this time. I send in my lyrics since Monday’,” the Headliner’s singer recalled.
He said he never made any adjustments to the song, and he got a letter on Friday saying the song was fine.

TC, who submitted her lyrics last week Saturday, was not so fortunate. She said she turned up to perform not knowing if the verse that was changed in Gimme A Ruler had been approved by the NCF’s legal team.
She said the legal issue put more pressure on her, since the song was still relatively new. The only time she performed it was at De Big Show judging last week Tuesday.

Two words

TC said her team got a call around 10:30 p.m. on Thursday, saying the NCF lawyers had an issue with two words which they felt made fourlines defamatory.

“We had to spend up to 2:30 [Friday] morning trying to fix it, for me to learn it, then for them to approve it. It is only when I arrived here tonight that I got the letter saying that it was approved,” she said.

While acknowledging that there were 36 songs to be vetted, TC still felt they should have had more timely notice.
“It was difficult in that I had to learn a whole new verse, because everything would have been thrown out of context if I had changed one part and didn’t change the other part.

“So I prayed really, really hard, kept my fingers crossed when I was singing it and luckily for me, I remembered all of them,” she revealed.
Classic of the Bacchanal Time tent was also under legal review, but it is unclear whether the lawyers vetted Deman(d)or I Ain’t Finish It.
When told of the calypsonians’ dissatisfaction, competition coordinator Stephen Brathwaite said the rules did not give a time frame for when notice of legal issues should be given. (YB)