Entertainment Macco

I wonder if you all would remember “Whoa Donkey”….. “We riding….we riding….whoa donkey…whoa whoa donkey….” I definitely remember my primary school Carnival jump up when the United Sisters (a phenomenal 4 woman group) visited my school and tore the place up!! I jumped and pranced like crazy. Tigress entered the entertainment industry in 1988 as a solo artiste a and later was a member of the group United Sisters. She continues to consistently make a name for herself. For Carnival 2k9 she wowed Trinidad and Tobago with her controversial Kaiso “Yuh Ent See Wajang Yet” and copped the second place title in the Calypso Monarch Finals. Leh we Macco…we going back to the basics….


Entertainment Macco: What is your sign?
Tigress: "LIBRA – October 11th year not important"

Entertainment Macco: What is your given name?
Tigress: "My mother apparently had a few favourites so she gave me all of them so here goes….Grace Joanne Allison Rowley"
Entertainment Macco: Haha that is a classic!!

Entertainment Macco: I heard you were a country girl; tell the maccos where in Trinidad you hail from?
Tigress: "Yes I am a country girl. Grew in St Mary’s Village in Moruga later moved to La Brea where I became an honorary La Brea-rian, then settled in Couva."

Entertainment Macco: So I hear you living in foreign now is that true? If that is true, how long have you been living outside of Trinidad and where?
Tigress: "Yes I live in the United States since 1997"
Entertainment Macco: Where lady?
Tigress: "I now live in the state of Florida…Orlando to be exact."

Entertainment Macco: Where did the name Tigress come from and who gave it to you?
Tigress: "The name “Tigress” not “Tigeress” not “Lady Tigress” as some people tend to say, came from me. I named myself as I was about to enter the calypso arena and while searching for a sobriquet I did not want to do the Lady or Singing, I wanted to be unique. I thought long and hard about a flower decided the only flower I will go with to describe me might have to be a cactus…my favourite animal is a Tiger.. So Tigress was born…"

Entertainment Macco: How long have you been in the business?
Tigress: "I entered the entertainment industry / calypso arena in 1988 took a sabbatical from 1997-2004 but I love to say 20years."

Entertainment Macco: What is your absolute favourite song?
Tigress: "I have a few
David Rudder’s - Chant of a Mad Man
Sugar Aloes - Time
Stevie Wonder - Ribbon in the sky
Crossroads which I sang in 2004
Gospel - Lamb of God"

Entertainment Macco: Do you choose what you are going to sing about?
Tigress: "Yes I do"
Entertainment Macco: How do you choose?
Tigress: "Current events, and being a true chantwell
A Mothers Lament 2005 - was what I was faced with as a mother of a teenaged son
Crossroads 2004 - are my views after living abroad and seeing and hearing what was being said about my beautiful serene twin island republic.
Accessory to the Fact 2006 - The flip side of A Mothers Lament in this I decided its not the youths to be blamed at all time we the parents as sometimes an accessory to the crime that our children commit."

Entertainment Macco: Do you have kids or grandkids?
Tigress: "Again yes I am a mother of three sons/men
Kerron 32
Shawn 30
Darrion 25

Grandmother of 2
Kato 9
Kerrisa 5"

Entertainment Macco: What is your absolute favourite thing to do?
Tigress: "Go to church, relax to smooth jazz, play some good all fours and sew."
Entertainment Macco: Well i know who to check when I want a good game now!!

Entertainment Macco: When and how did you recognize your love for calypso?
Tigress: "I used to sing in a ball room band... (VIN Courtney) and there I felt really comfortable doing calypsoes."

Entertainment Macco: If you weren't singing what would you be doing?
Tigress: "Managing my own business…I have always dreamt of having a home for battered women even had a name for it too “Sisters of the Order of Sorrows”

Entertainment Macco: What is the non Calypsonian Tigress like?
Tigress: "You sure you want me to tell…You want to know who Joanne is let me see. Jovial, Outspoken, Spiritual, Bold, Independent, think that’s enough."

Entertainment Macco: Are you employed? If yes in what industry OR are you a full-time Calypsonian?
Tigress: "I am employed with a pharmaceutical company here in Orlando FL
Nephron Pharmaceuticals."

Entertainment Macco: Religious or Spiritual?
Tigress: "SPIRITUAL"

Entertainment Macco: I am not going to beat around the bush when I ask you, were you seriously “totting feelings” when you sang that song Yuh Ent See Wajang Yet?
Tigress: "YES – I love songs like that to bring out the Tiger within."

Entertainment Macco: So is it coincidental that your last name is Rowley and the person you were defending in the song last name is Rowley as well OR all yuh related?
Tigress: "Many years ago I met Dr Rowley as every season he would attend the calypso tent; we always referred to each other as “famalee.”
If we are related I do not know we never questioned it. I was not born in Tobago but my maternal grandfather was Edric Leonard Rowley."
Entertainment Macco: Lady you better find out if that is your "famalee" eh.

Entertainment Macco: As a female in the industry how hard has it been for you, I have heard so many stories about females being promiscuous and being approached my the male controllers of the industry to “put out.” Have you ever experienced that…..Ohhh and we still talking about the hardships eh!
Tigress: “You want to make ah some commess at this junction don’t you?
I thank God everyday that I have never had any such encounters since entering this industry. I respect myself and I have in turn earned that respect of my fraternity brothers. The encounters I have had to date is trite, Issues I have seen and witnessed are there too many women in the tent, or you are just the token female act, as one tend to always say you should have a woman on the cast, forget it you they suspect you are earning more than them. The hardships the women that has gone before has blazed that trail that women in the art form now are looked up to instead of being scorned.”
Entertainment Macco: Me.........Commess? But what kinda allegation is this? I am just a Macco!!

Entertainment Macco: Reminisce for me….United Sisters (Tigress, Marvellous Marva, Singing Sandra and Lady B), one of the most memorable experience as a group if you can recall.
Tigress: "The formation of the awesome foursome known to all as United Sisters I should let you know was an act of God; the formation of the group had a profound effect on each of our lives. We have had very good memories. I must say there were bad ones too as you have 4 grown women already set in their own ways coming together, I will not trade either of them for anything though, I love my sisters dearly.
One of our most memorable experiences will have to be
1. Whoa Donkey- Cruise Ship Complex
2. Ambataila Woman – Caribbean Song Festival Queens Hall"

Entertainment Macco: I know one of the sisters died; Lady B, how difficult was it for you to deal with such a loss?
Tigress: "That was a hard time for us all, as you may know Beulah died in New York, I saw her in the hospital the day before she passed, I was at work as I lived in New York at that time. As i got the call I just knew..... thank God I had my spiritual family - Faith Believers Spiritual Baptist Tabernacle and the ecclesiastic leader Bishop Primus,Plumline Spiritual Baptist Cell under the leadership of King Shepherd Davidson Callender, Michael Manswell and Something Positive of New York, while Calypso Rose, Marvellous Marva and I hosted a grand send off for her…in true best village style as only Lady B could have had in a Grand Memorial service which was held in the church where I worshipped at the time Faith Believers Tabernacle at 2265 Pitkin Ave, Brooklyn NY"

Entertainment Macco: How hard was it for you to sing Yuh Ent See Wajang Yet in a competition where most of the participants are usually “pro-Manning”?
Tigress: "The songs that were released early in Trinidad and Tobago had already spoken; that made it easy."

Entertainment Macco: Do you write all your material? If not have you ever attempted to do any stuff on your own?
Tigress: "YES and NO
Yes I tell you what I want to sing what I want in each verse.
No I cannot put a melody to it; I will come up with a poem so I leave it to the pros."
Entertainment Macco: A poem? haha

Entertainment Macco: How do you feel when you hear the comment “Kaiso is dying”
Tigress: "It makes any true defender of the art form sad to hear the term "Calypso is dying"

Entertainment Macco: If there was one thing you could do to save the art form, what would that be?
Tigress: "If I can I will find someway to keep the artform alive, I love to see when the art is recognised as the culture of Trinidad and Tobago not being referred to as island music. I always try to explain “what is calypso” wherever I go"

Entertainment Macco: Are you featured in many shows overseas? Are you well received?
Tigress: "Yes I am featured in many shows overseas and I am very well received
In 2007 I was the recipient of a Proclamation from the City of New York for my cultural contributions in the community. I travel as far as Oakland and California to do workshops on our music and our culture. At present I am the Vice President of the Orlando Carnival Association so I keep busy culturally not as a singer only."

Entertainment Macco: When you are not working, focusing on music/practicing, what do you find yourself doing?
Tigress: "Relaxing, sewing, spending time with my grand kids as I consider it a privilege to see my second generation or I love to serve at the church. I do a lot of things for myself so I am always occupied....you can always find me online looking for something or in the shout box of Wack Radio shooting the breeze."

Entertainment Macco: Do you have a get away place/spot…..tell me where!
Tigress: It’s a “GET AWAY SPOT” if its public knowledge it’s no longer a get away spot or place.... I am always elated whenever I am going to Los Angeles CA even New York now that I no longer live there, Orlando is pretty laid back."

Entertainment Macco: One place you would like to visit in the near future.
Tigress: "AFRICA"
Entertainment Macco: Why?
Tigress: "Roots and Culture!!!!"

Entertainment Macco: What is your personal credo?
Tigress: "I will hold God to his promise, that he will never leave me nor forsake me."

Entertainment Macco: When you die, how do you want to be remembered?
Tigress: “As someone who created a self I was happy to live with”, as that is my aim in this life.