{"id":629570,"date":"2026-09-28T01:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/629570\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T01:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T01:06:09","slug":"mighty-sparrow-the-trinidad-and-tobago-singer-known-as-the-calypso-king-of-the-world-dies-aged-91-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/629570\/","title":{"rendered":"Mighty Sparrow, the Trinidad and Tobago singer known as the \u2018calypso king of the world\u2019, dies aged 91 | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Slinger Francisco, known on stage as the Mighty Sparrow and dubbed the \u201ccalypso king of the world\u201d, has died aged 91.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Francisco, who got his breakthrough in calypso music with his 1956 hit song Jean and Dinah, died peacefully surrounded by his family in New York on Sunday, his family said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">His death came after a \u201cbrief illness,\u201d the statement said without disclosing any other details.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cHe was an institution in the entertainment industry, well admired for his skill and finesse as a singer, songwriter and mentor; beloved by many,\u201d Francisco\u2019s family said.<\/p>\n<p>Mighty Sparrow performs at the Melkweg in 1989 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Photograph: Frans Schellekens\/Redferns<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Mighty Sparrow will be remembered as \u201ca defining voice of our culture, a master storyteller and a towering figure whose music helped carry calypso from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/trinidad-and-tobago\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trinidad and Tobago<\/a> to the world,\u201d the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians\u2019 Organisation said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Born in the coastal town of Grand Roy, Grenada, in July 1935, Francisco was just a toddler when he migrated with his parents to Trinidad and Tobago in 1937.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Trinidad and Tobago is the birthplace of calypso music, and was where the name and persona of the Mighty Sparrow emerged to produce a list of hit songs in the genre: Both of Them, Congo Man, Mr. Walker, The Lizard and many more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Birdie, as Francisco was also affectionately known, recorded hundreds of songs in a career that spanned six decades. He performed in several countries around the world, including at famous venues such as New York City\u2019s Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Throughout his career, Francisco\u2019s goal was to advance the calypso art form, according to Dr Rudolph Ottley, a Trinidadian cultural historian and author.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cThe Mighty Sparrow was the supreme entertainer, a cultural revolutionary and one of the world\u2019s greatest Calypsonians,\u201d Ottley told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Trinidad and Tobago has honored the composer and performer with national awards, and in 1987 the University of the West Indies conferred an honorary doctor of letters on Francisco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slinger Francisco, known on stage as the Mighty Sparrow and dubbed the \u201ccalypso king of the world\u201d, has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629571,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-629570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}