OLDIES SUNDAY: Singing Sandra – Die With My Dignity (1987)

Today’s Oldies Sunday selection comes from the late Sandra DesVignes-Millington a.k.a. Singing Sandra. Today we go back to the 1980s with her track, “Die With My Dignity” a.k.a. “Sexy Employees“.

Written by Ortniel Bacchus with production and distribution by M&M Records in 1987, the track finds Singing Sandra sharing the challenges women face on the Island when it comes to finding employment. She shares the episodes where Employers try to take advantage of women in the workplace by sexually harassing and exploiting them for monetary gains. Singing Sandra puts her foot down as she’s not welcoming their advances, and would rather go elsewhere than to discard her morals and values for gains of any kind. Sadly this is what’s going on in workplaces around the world where gender inequality is concerned, and with the #MeToo Movement on the rise in the past few years, many men are facing the other side of the Law for their crimes.

Singing Sandra’s “Die With My Dignity” became a part of history as it helped her to win the titles of “National Calypso Queen” in Trinidad, and the “St. Maarten Queen Of The World“. The song would be later featured on the “Rising Stars ’87” album, and became one of Singing Sandra’s signature tunes. Since “Die With My Dignity”, she went on to become the second woman to ever win the Calypso Monarch title in 1999 after Calypso Rose. With another title win in 2003, she became the first woman to do it twice. One of the pioneers in Calypso industry, she paved the way for more female voices to emerge in a predominantly male scene. She continued to make music and seal her place as a Caribbean Icon until her passing on January 28, 2021. We remember her with this Oldies Sunday selection.