Roaring Lion

Trinidadian calypsonian (1908–1999)

Roaring Lion (22 February 190811 July 1999) was a Trinidadian calypsonian (calypso singer/composer). His 65 year career began in the early 1930s and he is best known for his compositions "Ugly Woman" (1933), "Mary Ann" and "Netty, Netty", which are still performed today. The song "If You Wanna Be Happy", which hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on 18 May 1963, as well as the R&B singles chart, is based on Roaring Lion's "Ugly Woman".

Lion was born Rafael de Leon in Aroquita, in the Caura Hills of northern Trinidad, to a mother named Basalicion de Leon and a father named Arias Cairi Llama. An illegitimate child, Lion spent some of his earliest years in two orphanages, before being taken in, following his mother's illness, by an elderly woman named Miss Charles who lived on Coffee Street in the southwestern city of San Fernando. Finally, he was presented by Charles to a Muslim Indian family in San Fernando who wanted him; he was adopted by Najeeran Khan, who became his adoptive mother. He championed orphanages throughout his career, with songs such as 1940s "Orphan home", for example. Although there has long been confusion about his full name, he himself gave it as Rafael Arias Cairi Llama de Leon. He later met his biological father, who told him that his name, Cairi, was another name for Trinidad, and that "Llama" is a sort of goat or deer from South America. In a 1990 interview, Roaring Lion stated that "from fear that I might be styled a thief, I only use Rafael Deleon. "Unreliable source: date=September 2009

Roaring Lion died on 11 July 1999, at the age of 91, in Mt. Lambert, Trinidad. Reports claim that he had ten children. His sons include Ibn Llama de Leon, Ishmael de Leon, Akenathon de Leon, the late Rafael Charles de Leon (who lived in Brooklyn, New York), Mohondas deLeon (who lives in Norway), Karelius de Leon (who lives in Norway), Chris deLeon (who lives in France/USA ), and Krishna de Leon (who lives in Paris). His daughters are Victoria Peters (who lives in Trinidad and Tobago), and the late Pamela de Leon Lewis (who lived in Brooklyn, New York, with her three children: Abigail J. Bishop, Darryl R. Bishop, and youngest daughter Keiela J. Lewis). He was formerly married to the late Marie Louise de Leon, of Norway and she was the mother of four of his children. In 2002 Akenathon announced plans to turn his father's Mt. Lambert property into a Roaring Lion Museum.