The calypso community is mourning the loss of a veteran four times Calypso Monarch in Dominica “Solo”.
Name Melvin Constant, “Solo” graced the calypso arena in Dominica for many years thrilling his audience with hit after hit over the years among them “Mas in de Cemetery”.
The 74-year-old Bath Estate native who resided in the United States of America (USA), was on vacation in Dominica when he passed.
According to information obtained from Nature Isle News (NIN), he and his family were in the north of the island, in an area known as “Secret Beach Tibay, Portsmouth” when he came into distress whilst swimming and drowned.
“Efforts made to resuscitate him provided futile. He was subsequently transported to the Reginald Fitzgerald Armour Hospital in Portsmouth where he was officially pronounced dead by a medical doctor,” a police report stated.
Solo is one of three belonging to the elite “threepeat” club in Dominica Calypso history having achieved that feat from 1975 to 1977.
He first won the crown in 1973 and, following a brief interruption in 1974 he went on to hold the grip on the calypso monarch title for three straight years in 1975, 1976, and 1977.