Ramdew Chaitoe (19 December 1942 - 6 June 1994) was a Surinamese artist and a

harmonium The pump organ is a type of free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame. The piece of metal is called a reed. Specific types of pump organ include the reed organ, harmonium, and melodeon. Th ...

player, who released a

Baithak Gana {{unreferenced, date=June 2014 Baithak Gana is a form of music originating in Suriname by the Indian community. Baithak is a social gathering. It is a mix of Bhojpuri folk songs with other Caribbean influences. It is similar to Chutney music that ...

album called ''The King Of Suriname a.k.a The Star Melodies of Ramdew Chaitoe in 1976''. Rumors exist about how Chaitoe started his career singing in jail after being arrested in a bar fight. Ramdew grew up on a farm. His father, songwriter/lyricist and harmonium instrumentalist Pundit Shastrie Sewpersad Chaitoe, was a considerable influence on Ramdew, inaugurating his son early in the musical art form, by having him perform weekly at Hindu temple ceremonies. This allowed the young Chaitoe to become skilled at his craft, thus allowing him to perform with the top singers and composers in Suriname as he matured. Throughout his travels in the Caribbean, Chaitoe acquired a strong reputation as a skilled harmonium player and singer. Ramdew Chaitoe traveled from the West Indies to Europe, and also had a show in New York. In 1976, Chaitoe released ''The King Of Suriname a.k.a The Star Melodies of Ramdew Chaitoe''. This album is considered to be the first

album ever in Suriname. Moreover, due to the exposure that he received from this album, Chaitoe became a household name not just in Suriname but in the Indo-Caribbean world as well. In the popular manner of composition at the time, Chaitoe composed this album with religious and folk songs from the

Purvanchal Purvanchal () is a subregion of the Bhojpuri region of India which comprises eastern Uttar Pradesh. Purvanchal region gained independence from the Avadh and Mughal rule under Zamindar Balwant Singh, a Bhumihar zamindar from Benaras State. I ...

- Bhojpur, and

Awadh Awadh (), known in British historical texts as Avadh or Oudh, is a region in the modern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, which was before independence known as the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. It is synonymous with the Kośāla region of ...

regions of the present-day states of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

and

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. These songs, like blue bhajans, captivated audiences with Chaitoe's artistic trend not just in Suriname but all over the Indo-Caribbean community. Chaitoe is regarded as one of the best singers of the Caribbean genre of

, which is still seen as the authoritative music genre in the Hindustani community. Though on the evening of June 6, 1994, Ramdew Chaitoe's life was cut short of a massive heart attack during his sleep in his home in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

, he left behind dozens of pieces of music for his thousands of fans throughout the Indo-Caribbean world. He suffered from

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predomi ...

. Chaitoe is outlived by his son Pradeep Chaitoe, who is carrying on his legacy and tradition of singing and a sister Bidjanwatie Chaitoe, who is also a singer.

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20090126054916/http://mohabirrecords.us/index.php {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaitoe, Ramdew 1942 births 1994 deaths Surinamese people of Indian descent Surinamese musicians Surinamese Hindus People from Wanica District Musicians from Rotterdam