Lady Saw

Lady Saw

Lady Saw is the stage name of Marion Hall, a Jamaican dancehall and reggae artist from Saint Mary, Jamaica. She is known as the “First Lady of Dancehall” and is described as Jamaica’s queen of dancehall. She becomes the first female deejay to win a Grammy Award and the first to be certified as a triple-platinum artist. She is also the first woman to headline dancehall shows outside Jamaica.

Early life and name

Hall grows up in Galina, in Saint Mary parish. As a child, she is a tomboy, sells fruit and races wooden karts. She takes the name Lady Saw at 15, after the Jamaican deejay Tenor Saw, whose style she emulates. Before music becomes her full-time work, she leaves a sewing job at The Free Zone on the outskirts of Kingston, saying the job is not for her and that she deejays while working during the day.

Career

She begins to find success in the early 1990s, recording for the local Diamond label. Her early releases include “If Him Lef” and “Stab Out de Meat”, songs that draw mixed reactions because of their sexually explicit content and her outspoken performance style. Her stage shows become known for their raucousness, including moments where she brings men from the audience, and sometimes her own band members, on stage to act out sex simulations.

She faces censorship and bans at many events because of what is seen as vulgarity in her lyrics. Her songs often address unfaithful lovers, female degradation and safe sex, including “Condom”, which responds to the spread of AIDS. This track appears on her second album, Give Me the Reason. Other well-known songs from this period include “No Long Talking”, “Sycamore Tree” and “Find a Good Man”, which help establish her as Jamaica’s leading female deejay and bring her wider exposure in the United States, especially in Caribbean communities in New York and Miami.

Recordings and collaborations

She is signed early on by VP Records. Her debut single, “Lover Girl”, appears in 1994. Her vocals also come to wider attention through the Jermaine Fagan track “Life”. Across her career she works with a range of artists, including Beenie Man on “Healing”, Sean Paul on “Bossman”, Ce’Cile on “Loser”, Tanya Stephens on “Bruck Dem Up”, and Papa Dee on “Hottie Hottie Girls”. She also collaborates outside dancehall with Missy Elliott, Eve, Lil’ Kim, Vitamin C and Foxy Brown. Two singles, “Still Convinced” and “Too Abusive”, are mixed by Soundism.

Albums

In 1999 she releases 99 Ways, which includes “Don’t Even Stress Dat”, “Hardcore Lover”, “Money Money” and “99 Ways”. After a six-year break, she releases Strip Tease, which is described as her most balanced and well-written album. Its track “I’ve Got Your Man” receives significant video and radio play in the United States and reaches number 85 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles and Tracks chart, while “Loser” with Ce’Cile is the album’s second hit. In 2005 she records a version of Gregory Isaacs’ “Night Nurse”, toasting over the original lyrics. In 2007 she releases Walk Out, which debuts at number 8 on the Reggae Albums chart; its singles “Infertility” and “Chat To Mi Back” are well received. Her eighth studio album, My Way, appears in 2010 and is her first release on her own label, Divas Records, in partnership with Toasting Music. Its single is “Party Til December”.

Later direction

In 2012, she announces that she turns away from dancehall and focuses on gospel music.

Personal life

Hall is the mother of three adopted children: two sons and one daughter. She also addresses infertility in the song “No Less Than a Woman (Infertility)” from Walk Out.