Yes, in case you did not know, Notre Dame is French for “Our Lady” or “Our Mother” as in the Blessed Virgin Mary. So it’s no wonder that the Christian world stopped for a moment as the French watched horrified as this over 800-year-old edifice, the Notre Dame was gutted by fire just over a week ago.
Having said all this, I draw our attention to our own Notre Dame in Dominica. It is not a building or something inanimate as paintings or stained glass windows or priceless monuments or complicated architecture. But the significance is almost as priceless. I speak here of our Lady of Song, our Notre Dame of song celebrating 40 years of professionalism in music as a career.
In 1975 Ophelia won the National Patois Song Competition as it was then called with a lancer which was recorded by Gordon Henderson and is still today her signature song: “I Dominik”. Just as the Notre Dame in France there is not a single Dominican who doesn’t know of the exploits of this great Lady of Song revered more by the French than her own people.
What you might not know, or have forgotten, is that her songs together with Gordon Henderson’s at one time was banned on the Nation’s Station for a couple years by another management team (I can’t see that happening under present manager Cecil Joseph). She has only performed or invited to perform six times out of the 20 years of the WCMF and she has never, ever been invited to perform at the Jazz and Creole event even if many artiste here perform her works at the event.
Ironically, our Notre Dame of Song, Ophelia Marie, are one of two living Dominicans who can attract the largest audience from the French Antilles at any musical showcase on island. We hear the DFC all the time touting that their greatest visitor arrivals by far to Dominica are from Martinique and Guadeloupe. Who else is a greater pull factor than Ophelia?
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