Traditional calypso was a male-dominated field. However, a number of women established reputations for kaiso talent—on stage, or as recording artists. Muriel Gaines, Marie Bryant, Lili Verona, Marjorie Johnson, Calypso Rose, Lady Trixie, and others left a legacy that inspired future generations of women to compete in the tents, and regale audiences at clubs and hotels.

Maureen DuValiera (born Maureen Verlene Duvalier, May 14, 1926), a Nassau-based singer known as "Calypso Mama," made one album for the Art label, which proved her an estimable calypso stylist. Accompanied by the Lad Richards Calypso Orchestra, DuValiera offers dynamic interpretations of ten popular calypso favorites. The liner notes from this 1957 LP (below) mention a second album, but there is no evidence a sequel was recorded or released.

DuValiera was also an actress, and appeared in the 1958 film Island Women. In 2004 she was awarded the MBE for her years of service to Bahamian music. She died December 19, 2014.

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Liner notes to A CALYPSO MAMA SINGS (Art Records ALP-17, 1957)

Maureen DuValiera, the “Calypso Mama,” attractive young singer of Calypso, was out on the blue Caribbean, entertaining passengers of the cruise ship Queen of Nassau, while this was being written, so we asked her mother, who lives in Nassau in the Bahama Islands, for some vital statistics.

"Maureen was born in Nassau," her mother said. "When she was eleven, she would sit and listen to a story being told by a grown-up and then, a little later, we would hear her singing her own version of what she had heard. Lord Kitchener, the famous calypso singer, was her ideal and she eagerly listened to any records of his that were available in the local record shops, or that she could hear over the Bahamas Radio Station ZNS."

When Maureen grew up, she sang in the church choir, but the urge for a professional singing career was so strong that at 19, she got her first engagement at the British Colonial Hotel in Nassau. Since that time, Maureen DuValiera, now the "Calypso Mama," has played at almost every hotel and club in the Bahamas, at the famous Tropicana Club in Cuba, at Birdland in New York and at the Savannah in Greenwich Village At present she is entertaining on the cruise ships SS Yarmouth Castle, SS Evangeline, and SS Queen of Nassau. This is the first of two albums by Maureen DuValiera to be released by Art Records, with whom she has an exclusive recording contract for the next five years.