KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

So­ca/calyspo artiste and mu­sic ed­u­ca­tor Sherisse Col­ly­more has dreams of be­ing on Broad­way.

At age three, Col­ly­more be­gan singing, and her pri­ma­ry school teach­ers gave her a mu­si­cal in­tro­duc­tion.

In 2009, she won the Miss San­fest ti­tle, and in 2012, she achieved third place in the Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch com­pe­ti­tion.

She took her pas­sion a step fur­ther by ob­tain­ing an As­so­ciate De­gree in Mu­sic Ed­u­ca­tion, with a foun­da­tion in clas­si­cal voice train­ing.

“Look­ing to the fu­ture, in ten years or less, I see my­self as one of the few Trinida­di­an mu­si­cians on Broad­way,” she said.

“Artistes like Melanie Hud­son, who evolved from be­ing a ca­lyp­son­ian to now per­form­ing on Broad­way, have opened doors of op­por­tu­ni­ty and hope for peo­ple like me. This in­spires me to dream big and work to­ward mak­ing this vi­sion a re­al­i­ty.”

Many in­spi­ra­tions and men­tors have shaped Col­ly­more’s jour­ney.

“The late Wayne Bruno’s ex­cep­tion­al work eth­ic and ded­i­ca­tion to mu­sic taught me valu­able lessons, such as the im­por­tance of punc­tu­al­i­ty: be­ing ten min­utes ear­ly is be­ing on time.”

“Le­ston Paul, a pi­o­neer in so­ca mu­sic, has al­so been a ma­jor in­flu­ence and men­tor in my life. His abil­i­ty to draw in­spi­ra­tion from oth­er gen­res and in­fuse them in­to his work has fu­elled my cre­ative am­bi­tions. His ded­i­ca­tion and artistry are qual­i­ties I strive to em­u­late.”

The ac­com­plished en­ter­tain­er, who re­leased her first so­ca Mind Con­trol in 2018—pro­duced by Kyle Phillips and writ­ten by Red Um­brel­la Pro­duc­tions—has worked on two songs for the sea­son.

“For Car­ni­val 2025, I re­leased two tracks, Sprung, on the Sweet Waist Rid­dim, and Pres­sure on the Bess Ting Rid­dim,” she said.

“These songs re­flect my pas­sion for mu­sic and en­ter­tain­ment, a pas­sion that makes me feel at home when­ev­er I step on­to the stage. Per­form­ing has al­ways felt like my true call­ing, and I am de­ter­mined to con­tin­ue pur­su­ing this path.”

The lead singer of Tem­per­a­ture Band has been a back­ground vo­cal­ist for many such as the late Black Stal­in (Leroy Cal­liste) as well as Ca­lyp­so Rose, David Rud­der, Na­dia Bat­son, and Machel Mon­tano.

“I al­so see my­self tour­ing the world,” she said.

“While I don’t know what type of artiste or mu­sic I will be per­form­ing in the fu­ture, I am con­fi­dent that I will achieve my goal of a world­wide tour, shar­ing my love for mu­sic with di­verse au­di­ences across the globe.”

From her ear­ly days as a Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch, Col­ly­more has con­sis­tent­ly show­cased her pas­sion for mu­sic con­tribut­ing an­nu­al­ly to the Di­vas Ca­lyp­so Tent.

“I am still a mem­ber of Di­vas. The ex­pe­ri­ence is like no oth­er that is why I would al­ways con­sid­er my­self a Di­va,” she said.

“I would be singing with Di­vas Tent this year. Di­vas has def­i­nite­ly mould­ed and as­sist­ed me to be an all-round per­former. They’re tru­ly a sis­ter­hood with sup­port like no oth­er.”

Col­ly­more’s mix of grace, en­er­gy and per­for­mance con­tin­ues to dri­ve her pas­sion to be a full-time per­former both lo­cal­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly.