Marion Hall still on top after 30-plus years
Former ‘Queen of Dancehall’ heads to Groovin’ in the Park, Reggae Sumfest
Published:Sunday | June 11, 2023 | 12:26 AMAnthony Turner - Gleaner Writer
“Are you ready for Lady Saw?” the emcee asked patrons at a 1993 concert at Crofts Hill Entertainment Complex in Clarendon.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!!!” the dancehall-thirsty crowd shouted in unison.
Once onstage, Saw, relaxed and in control, began her performance with an appeal to God, “ Oh Lord please work a miracle for me, to find a man of my own. Because dear Lord I’m tired of sleeping all night alone”, before segueing into If him Left and Stab up the Meat.
This was Lady Saw, raw and lyrically potent as she riled up fans. That was one of five concert appearances she had during Independence weekend, but that’s how it is when you are the top-billed, most-sought-after female deejay in the dancehall business.
Lady Saw broke a glass ceiling in the Jamaican dancehall in the 1990s by becoming one of the biggest stars in a male-dominated genre. She became the first Jamaican female deejay to win a Grammy Award and achieve triple-platinum status. In 2004, she released the album, I’ve Got Your Man, the lead single of which, Strip Tease, crossed-over on the R&B charts and peaked at number 58. Her global success created opportunities to perform with music stalwarts, such as Sir Paul McCartney, Missy Elliot, Sean Paul, the king of lovers rock Beres Hammond, Nicki Minaj, and No Doubt.
I had to ravage through a dozen boxes stored in my attic to find the audio cassette with the interview I did with her at Crofts Hill. The Stab up the Meat deejay confessed, she was really a shy girl from St Mary, who took on a different persona when she hit the stage.
“A lot of people look for Lady Saw as a girl who wears a lot of jewels,” she shared, “Some people think I am a tough black girl, but when they meet me they realise I am just a sweet, simple, sexy black girl.”
BOLD AND FEARLESS
Lady Saw was bold and fearless onstage and her fans revered her, but Marion Hall, the offstage girl from St Mary was not satisfied. The celebrated ‘Queen of Dancehall’, she wrestled for years with the idea of relinquishing the title to live her life as a born-again Christian. She yielded to that inner voice on Monday, December 14, 2015, when she got baptised and embraced her birth name, Marion Hall.
Today, more than seven years after her baptism and 30-plus years after adopting the moniker, Lady Saw, her most ardent critics say her light has dimmed significantly. Some say her career has screeched to a halt and that she is no longer relevant, unless she gets back to her dancehall ways.
Truth be told, however, despite not performing on any high-profile events in almost a decade, she still remains one of the most-talked-about Jamaican artistes on social media. Her to-and-fro on social media with Spice, Macka Diamond and Queen Ifrica has obviously helped to lift her online profile, which was already trending following the announcement in March that Minister Marion Hall was booked for Reggae Sumfest in July.
Subsequently, even before Groovin’ in the Park CEO Chris Roberts broke the news about her confirmation to perform at that non-gospel event, the Sycamore Tree artiste pre-empted him taking to Facebook to announce, “I’m about to go into some places that some of you wouldn’t want to go and don’t want me to go, but it’s time … I’m going to the Jerk Fest dem, the Groovin’ in the Park.”
Minister Marion Hall is now on a Bible-buying mission, which will see her distributing the sacred book at Reggae Sumfest. Speculation is rife that Lady Saw, too, will show up there, as well as on the stage at Groovin’ in the Park on June 25 at the Roy Wilkins Park in New York, performing songs from her dancehall catalogue.
Kingston-born, South Florida-based Michelle Simith, who confessed to being a long-time Lady Saw fan told The Sunday Gleaner, “I bought my ticket to Groovin’ in the Park and I am excited to see Marion Hall formerly Lady Saw! Regardless of which persona shows up I am looking forward to hearing some of her old-school songs that are family friendly, if there was ever such a thing. With all the talk and words being thrown from the other two ‘queens’, I am tempted to ask, will there be chicken or beef on the menu this year? “
In a recent interview with New York radio host Ras Clem, Minister Hall, seeking to bring some clarity to the topic told her fans, “I still have Lady Saw fans. Know this about me. I am a Christian, but I don’t reach the Jesus stage where you can box me in the face and I turn the next side. Is not me that. I don’t reach there so yet,” she warned.
Asked to offer comments about three women in music whom she has worked with, Hall shared, “Missy Elliot, down-to-earth and real; No Doubt, Gwen Stefani, fun; Ifrica ... me loose of a yuh.”