Canboulay riots
The chantwell became a calypsonian in the 1920s and calypso became widely popular throughout Trinidad and the Caribbean in the 1930s. Harry Belafonte, a Jamaican-born artist, became hugely successful throughout the world with his 1956 "Calypso" becoming a million seller. During the 1960s, calypso was merged with Indian music and later soul and funk to become soca.
Music of Trinidad and Tobago
These early popular performers led the way for calypso's mainstreaming with artists including Lord Kitchener, Harry Belafonte and Mighty Sparrow. Belafonte, a Jamaican-American singing in American English, was by far the most popular internationally during this wave (with his "Calypso" album, Belafonte was the first artist to sell a million copies), but his music was also extensively criticized for watering down the sound of calypso.