The 2024 Saint Lucia National Carnival Queen, Shan Lucien, is making waves this year as she takes on a new artistic challenge by entering the calypso arena.
With her background in music and a deep-rooted love for Saint Lucian culture, Shan says the transition feels natural.
“I’ve always been a lover of the stage. I am a singer. I play piano, so the transition from pageantry to calypso is a little bit easier for me because I am used to performing. I’m used to putting myself out there,” she told St Lucia Times.
Her passion for music runs deep, and she hopes to fuse her artistic gifts with purposeful messages through calypso. “It’s really just a matter of making sure that I deliver my messages through my songs as clearly as possible. Music has been my life for as long as I can remember, and I’ve also been a real lover of Saint Lucian culture, and so it only seemed right that at some point in my life I would venture off into calypso.”
For fans familiar with her pageant journey, Shan promises the same heartfelt sincerity in her Calypso performances.
She also hopes to stir a deeper sense of national pride through her music. “I am extremely patriotic. I love my island, and so I would love to pass on some of that patriotism to my fans. I’d like if people could show the country some love, not just during Independence Day, but in their day-to-day actions in building each other up and in making our nation a better place.”
Beyond her calypso debut, Shan also reflected on the recent cancellation of the Miss Jaycees pageant, a regional event with a long history in Caribbean pageantry.
She said that it is unfortunate that the show was cancelled this year, particularly because it is one of the few pageants with contestants from many different islands.
“I really hope that in the future, we would be able to get the sponsorship to keep the show up and running, because I think that our region could use more of that positive spotlight on our young queens,” Shan, the reigning Jaycees queen, said.
