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Calypso icon Slinger Francisco, dubbed ‘The Mighty Sparrow,’ dies at 91, his family says
The calypso legend recorded hundreds of songs over six decades and helped carry the genre from Trinidad and Tobago to audiences worldwide.
- On Sunday, September 27, 2026, the family of Slinger Francisco, known globally as The Mighty Sparrow, announced the legendary calypsonian died in New York at age 91 following a brief illness.
- Born in Grenada, Francisco moved to Trinidad as a child, launching a career spanning more than seven decades that established him as a defining figure in Caribbean music and culture.
- Known as the Calypso King of the World, Francisco won Trinidad and Tobago's Calypso Monarch title eight times and received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies in 1987.
- The Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organisation called him 'a defining voice of our culture,' noting his music helped elevate calypso from Trinidad and Tobago to the global stage.
- His family remembered him as a devoted husband, father, and grandfather, revealing he embraced Christianity in his final days by joining the Seventh-day Adventist faith and making "his election sure.
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Calypso: Enslaved African gift and its Mighty Sparrow, By Owei Lakemfa
Slinger Francisco, better known as Mighty Sparrow, the “Calypso King of the World”, flew away on 27 September. He was ninety. Calypso music was invented in the seventeenth century by African slaves in Trinidad who had mainly been taken from the Ibibio, Efik and Igbo peoples in present-day Nigeria and Congo. It is generally accepted […]
·Abuja, Nigeria
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Slinger Francisco was also known for his high verb and sharp feather. He died in New York at the age of 91.
·Paris, France
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Total News Sources93
Leaning Left24Leaning Right6Center23Last UpdatedBias Distribution45% Left
Bias Distribution
- 45% of the sources lean Left
45% Left
L 45%
C 44%
11%
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