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Carlyn XP: from Giraudel nursing to the bouyon crowns

Published October 20, 2026

Carlyn XP is a singer, songwriter and performer from Roseau, Dominica, whom Caribbean press bills as the Bouyon Queen, an attributed title this profile cites as such. Behind the billing, the public record is rich and checkable: a childhood in Giraudel, training as a nurse, early years in the Energy Band and Caribbean Vybes, the lead singer seat in Fanatik beside Cornell Phillip, one of the creators of bouyon, then the crowns that built her reputation, Groovy Soca Monarch in 2010 and Bouyon Monarch two years running. This profile follows that path source by source, gives her documented discography, and also states honestly the one point on which her own official style biographies do not agree: the exact years of her two Bouyon Monarch crowns.

Who Carlyn XP is: a Roseau voice, a two letter stage name

Carlyn XP was born Carlyn Vernella Xavier, according to the long profile published by the Dominican magazine eMage DM. Her full married artist name, Carlyn Xavier-Phillip, appears in the writing credits of her published songs, for example on “Canavalist” and “Foreigner”, where she is credited as a songwriter alongside Cornell Phillip. The XP in her stage name runs through her brands: her publishing house is Imperial Publishing, her 2016 album is titled “Xplicious”, her weekly pandemic era YouTube show was called Keeping it Xplicious, and her rallying phrase, carried into the descriptions of her official videos, is to keep it XPlicious.

The biographies published under her name describe her as one of Dominica most acclaimed female artists, and as a premier performer in bouyon. Soca News, in its article on 25 years of the World Creole Music Festival, presents her as the Bouyon Queen and names “Gimme Dat” and “Nobody” among her known songs. eMage DM uses the same billing, and Riches Karayib used it for her 2022 festival appearance. Under this site rule, that title is attributed to those sources: there is no official bouyon queen crown, there is a reputation, carried by the press and by her competition wins, and this profile tells it with its evidence.

Her documented repertoire reaches well beyond bouyon alone. Her biographies credit her across reggae, dancehall, cadence, zouk, compas, R and B, hip hop and rap, and her published catalogue bears that out: soca records such as “Stranger”, “Bumpa Scare” and “241”, bouyon records such as “Bouyon Army”, “Bouyon Calling” and “Bouyon Water”, and patriotic songs such as “Raise Your Flags” and “Dominica Strong”. That breadth is part of her identity as a stage artist: in Dominica, singers of her calibre are judged on their ability to hold a whole night, from Creole to carnival.

Carlyn XP is also the lead singer of Fanatik, presented in her biographies as the most versatile band in Dominica, and she performs with her partner as the duo C Squared, also written C Square, for countryside bars, cruise tourists and private events. That double life, big festival stage and small close up duo, explains the loyalty of her audience, the Bouyon Army, the name her fans carry and one of her most cited bouyon titles.

Giraudel, the church choir, then the nursing diploma

According to eMage DM, Carlyn was raised by her father in Giraudel, a community perched on the hills above Roseau, known for its annual flower show. She describes an ordinary island childhood there: ring games, river baths and rounders. She sang first in the church choir, then joined Modife, a Giraudel based band, whose name she explains with humour: it did not stand for more fire, it meant using what they had and adapting, reusing things to make instruments.

After high school at St Martin Secondary, she completed the nursing programme at the Dominica State College. Her StageIt biography gives the exact qualification: a Certified Registered Nurse. The job did not quiet the singing. She joined the Energy Band in 2007, then the reggae band Caribbean Vybes in 2010, according to the chronology published by eMage DM. Through those years she was both a nurse and a band singer, a double life she would later recount as the starting point of her 2015 decision.

Her first big break on the national stage came through Dunstan “Maggie” Peters, who recruited her for a Bouyon Unit segment at the annual LIME Creole in the Park, one of the biggest daytime events of Dominica Independence season. eMage DM reports her anxiety at sharing the stage with Clint, Nayee and other top rated acts of the genre, and at meeting bouyon pioneer Cornell “Fingers” Phillip. In her own telling, as soon as she decided to get her feet wet, they pushed her into the deep end, sink or swim. She swam.

That meeting with Cornell Phillip changed everything after it. She joined forces with him and became the lead vocalist of Fanatik, a live act with an eclectic repertoire playing venues around the island. On December 30, 2012, according to the fact box published by eMage DM, Carlyn married Cornell Phillip. The couple have a daughter, Chiara. The producer and keyboardist, one of the creators of bouyon as a founder of WCK, became her husband, her stage partner and the producer of nearly all her published records, a rare setup this profile documents track by track below.

The crowns: Groovy Soca Monarch 2010, then Bouyon Monarch two years running

The visibility gained with Fanatik led her to the soca monarch competitions, the ground where Dominican careers are measured. According to eMage DM, she won the Groovy Soca Monarch title in 2010 with the song “Music Fever”, and placed 1st runner up in the Power Soca Monarch with “Like a Fanatik”. Her StageIt biography describes her, in that period, as the reigning Groovy Soca Monarch and 1st runner up Power Soca Monarch of Dominica.

Then came the title that founded her bouyon reputation. eMage DM writes that by 2017 she had cemented her spot as one of the island top live performers, having won the Bouyon Monarch two years running. Her StageIt biography presents her as the reigning Bouyon Monarch in 2017, having won the same title in 2016. Her Bandcamp page presents her as the reigning Bouyon Monarch in 2018, having won the same title in 2017. The three sources agree on the central fact, two consecutive wins, and differ by one year on the exact dates.

This profile does not settle what its sources do not settle. The disagreement is written out in full here because it is part of the record, and because a rival profile that printed a single pair of years without mentioning the other would miss what the artist own official style biographies actually say. What is solid, and claimed by every version, is the sequence: a band singer who became, in two consecutive seasons, the champion of the contest that crowns the best bouyon performance in Dominica.

In 2015, between those two moments, Carlyn Xavier-Phillip made the decision to pursue music as a full time profession, her StageIt biography explaining that being a Certified Registered Nurse was conflicting with her true calling. The same year, according to eMage DM, Val Cuffy facilitated her performance at the Antilliaanse Feesten festival in Belgium: the promoter, who had only seen her as a backup vocalist, took a chance on the unknown singer, asked her to do an impromptu afternoon set, rushed her to change out of street clothes, and, moved to tears backstage in her account, paid them more than agreed. She took from it, she says, the importance of really learning the business of music.

The documented discography: from Xplicious to Ice Cream and Culture Me Love

Carlyn XP published catalogue is issued mainly by Imperial Publishing, Cornell Phillip structure, and it can be read on the streaming platforms that list it. The album “Xplicious” arrived in 2016 according to the Shazam listing, followed by the compilation “An Xplicious Christmas” in 2019 and the album “De Bouyon Queen” in 2023, whose title takes up, in its own Creole spelling, the billing the press gives her. The single “Score (Bouyon Remix)”, released on February 9, 2018 by Imperial Publishing as part of “Xplicious”, and “Canavalist”, released on January 26, 2019 by the same publisher with Carlyn Xavier-Phillip and Cornell Phillip credited as songwriters, anchor the crown years on record.

The songs listed as her most streamed on the platforms sketch her stage repertoire: “Bouyon Water”, “Bouyon Calling”, “Foreigner”, sung with Edday and credited to the same two songwriters, “Bumpa Scare”, which eMage DM gives as her favourite song from her own repertoire, “Stranger”, “241” and “Doh Stress Me Out”, whose subtitle, Mash up De Road, announces its carnival job. The eMage DM review of the Bouyon Jazz Festival 2021 adds “Bouyon Army” and “Caribbean Colors” to the fan favourites, performed that night in jazz arrangements, proof that her bouyon material also survives instrumental reworking.

The patriotic repertoire forms a second pillar, documented by eMage DM: “Raise Your Flags”, her entry in the 2019 Domfesta Song Competition, “Dominica Strong”, recorded after Tropical Storm Erika, “Pray for Dominica”, the NCCU Cadencelypso winning song of 2018, and “Like Home”, a number that resonates with Dominicans abroad. Those records explain her role beyond the fetes: on an island struck by storms, the singer who carries the rebuilding songs becomes a civic figure as much as a carnival artist.

Recent production continues. Platform listings show “Misbehave” in 2022, “Iz Dat Dey Like” in 2022, “Sway” with Bambi in 2021, “Go Down (Mr DJ)” in 2021, then “Big Truck” and “Accidentally” in 2023, “Nobody”, “Thick Girl Summer”, “Mango Lika”, “Hello” and “Check on Me” in 2024, and “Ice Cream” as the latest release in 2025. The official visualizer for “Culture Me Love”, published on her YouTube channel, credits Cornell Phillip with production, all instruments except Keith Goddard bass, and recording, mixing and mastering at Imperial Publishing, with a 2026 copyright for the publisher and the song billed as Bouyon 2027: the family machine, in the literal sense, is still running.

Musical Therapy, the Bouyon Army and the big stages

In 2020, when the pandemic closed the stages, Carlyn XP and Cornell Phillip launched Musical Therapy with Carlyn XP, a weekly Sunday appointment on Zoom and Facebook. eMage DM describes the mechanics: the fans, nicknamed the Zoomers and collectively the Bouyon Army, logged in from bedrooms in Dominica, living rooms in the United Kingdom, a garage in Houston and backyards in Brooklyn, dressed to a theme, requesting songs, dancing from start to finish and donating through payment apps. Guests invited to the platform included Dice, Gordon Henderson and Starsha.

The eMage DM portrait stresses the dimension that gives the show its name: fans at breaking point messaged asking for the sessions to continue, including one woman who confided suicidal thoughts, and Carlyn used the appointments to raise awareness of mental health as much as to perform. Her stage exclamations became signatures taken up by her audience and even by the keywords of her official videos: Oh My Word, Doh Stress Me Out, and the most famous, I Wasnt Ready, called out when her Zoomers upped the ante. The eMage DM portrait title is built on that phrase.

On physical big stages, the documented milestone is the World Creole Music Festival. Riches Karayib, in its report on the 2022 edition, notes that Carlyn XP was making her first appearance as a solo artist on the festival stage, billed there as the Bouyon queen, alongside established Dominican names such as Asa Bantan, TK International and WCK. For a singer long seen as the voice of a band, Fanatik, that solo billing at her island biggest festival marks the move from band vocalist to headline artist in her own right.

She is also listed among the artists for Ti Vilaj Kweyol 2026, the cultural week that precedes the festival in Roseau, according to the published list of confirmed artists. Between the festival, the weekly sessions she said she wanted to continue for those who cannot travel, and the C Squared duo for small stages, her model is that of an artist who occupies every format her island offers, from the stadium to the countryside bar.

The Queen of Domino, and what this profile establishes

One fact sets Carlyn XP apart from almost every other profile on this site, and it is documented by her StageIt biography: an excellent domino player, she holds the title of Queen of Domino, obtained at the World Domino Championship in Saint Lucia in 2010, the same year as her Groovy Soca Monarch crown. eMage DM confirms the love of the game: asked what her own therapy is, she answers playing rounders and dominoes, and being online with her Zoomers each Sunday. No other bouyon artist documented here combines a national music crown with a world title in a table game.

The same portrait gives her personal bearings with the same frankness: her favourite genre is reggae, her choice between beach and river is river, and her stated dream performance is Madison Square Garden. In it she also speaks plainly about a cyst discovered after whispered criticism of her weight, and about her rule of never commenting on a woman body or on why she is not having children, because you never know what she is going through. That direct speech, rare in artist biographies from the region, is part of what her audience calls her musical therapy: the artist talks about her life while the songs play.

She adds a mentoring strand: she wants to help other artists find their voice, and to mentor young female acts such as Starsha and Melodee in particular, impressing on them that being a musician is a full time commitment, not a hobby. In the same text she criticises banks that do not understand that a music video is an artist advertisement, companies that use artists music without permission or compensation, and public support she judged lacking during the pandemic. Those are published positions, attributed to her interview, and this profile reports them as such.

What this profile establishes, in the end, fits in one line: Carlyn XP is the Dominican singer who turned nursing training and a band vocalist seat into a documented reign over the bouyon stages, with two consecutive Bouyon Monarch crowns, a fan army organised through a pandemic, and a family published catalogue at Imperial Publishing that runs from “Xplicious” in 2016 to “Culture Me Love”, announced for Bouyon 2027. To hear her in the flow of the genre, our bouyon playlist places her among the Dominican voices followed by Bouyon Shattaz, and our bouyon soca page tells the story of the neighbouring branch of her competition soca.

Frequently asked questions

Why is Carlyn XP called the Bouyon Queen?

Because Caribbean press calls her that: Soca News presents her as the Bouyon Queen in its article on 25 years of the World Creole Music Festival, eMage DM uses the same billing, and Riches Karayib used it for her 2022 festival appearance. It is a title attributed by those sources, grounded in her two consecutive Bouyon Monarch wins, not an official crown. Her 2023 album, “De Bouyon Queen”, takes the billing up.

In which years did Carlyn XP win the Bouyon Monarch?

Her own official style biographies do not agree on the dates, and this profile says so instead of quietly picking one. Her StageIt biography presents her as the reigning Bouyon Monarch in 2017, having won in 2016, so wins in 2016 and 2017. Her Bandcamp page presents her as reigning in 2018, having won in 2017, so 2017 and 2018. eMage DM confirms the central fact without settling the start year: by 2017, she had won the title two years running.

Was Carlyn XP really a nurse?

Yes, according to her biographies and the eMage DM portrait. After St Martin Secondary school, she completed the nursing programme at the Dominica State College and became a Certified Registered Nurse. She sang in parallel, in the Energy Band from 2007 and Caribbean Vybes in 2010, then chose music full time in 2015, as the nursing career conflicted with her calling.

Does Carlyn XP hold a world title in dominoes?

Yes, according to her StageIt biography: an excellent domino player, she holds the title of Queen of Domino, obtained at the World Domino Championship in Saint Lucia in 2010, the same year as her Groovy Soca Monarch crown with “Music Fever”. eMage DM confirms that dominoes are part of her own stress relief, along with rounders and her Sunday sessions.

Who produces Carlyn XP records?

Cornell Phillip, her husband since December 30, 2012 according to eMage DM, and one of the creators of bouyon. Published credits show him everywhere: songwriter with her on “Canavalist” and “Foreigner”, and on the official “Culture Me Love” visualizer he is credited with production, all instruments except Keith Goddard bass, and recording, mixing and mastering at Imperial Publishing, their publishing structure.

Where should I start listening to Carlyn XP?

Start with the records platforms and press cite most: “Bouyon Water”, “Bouyon Calling”, “Bumpa Scare”, “Stranger” and “Foreigner” with Edday, then the patriotic songs “Raise Your Flags” and “Dominica Strong”. Our bouyon playlist places them inside the sound of Dominica today.

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