PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — Calypso music lost one of its most emblematic voices Sunday with the death of Slinger Francisco, who was known on stage as the Mighty Sparrow and dubbed the “Calypso King of the World.” He was 91.
\n\nFrancisco, who got his breakthrough in calypso music with his 1956 hit song “Jean and Dinah,” died peacefully surrounded by his family in New York, his family said in a statement. His death came after a “brief illness,” the statement said without disclosing any other details.
\n\n“He was an institution in the entertainment industry, well admired for his skill and finesse as a singer, songwriter and mentor; beloved by many,” Francisco’s family said.
\n\nThe Mighty Sparrow will be remembered as “a defining voice of our culture, a master storyteller and a towering figure whose music helped carry calypso from Trinidad and Tobago to the world,” the Trinbago Unified Calypsonians’ Organisation said in a statement.
\n\nBorn 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.
\n\nTrinidad and Tobago is the birthplace of calypso music, and it’s where the name and persona of the…
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