Lady Saw

Marion Hall, a Jamaican singer recognized as the First Lady of Dancehall, came into the world in 1969 inside the modest village of St. Mary’s. She secured a contract with the island’s independent VP Records and made her first appearance on record in 1994 through the album Lover Girl. Early on, she matched the intensity of Jamaica’s most outspoken male performers by joining Shabba Ranks for the track “Want It Tonight.” After her sophomore effort Give Me the Reason came the 1997 release Passion, where her boldly explicit delivery shone on pairings with Shaggy on “Mr. Lover Lover” and Beenie Man on “Healing.” That set proved to be her breakthrough, which in turn led to the 1998 arrival of the retrospective collections Collection and Raw: The Best of Lady Saw. Strip Tease followed in 2004, and three years later she issued the more expansive Walk Out. In 2010 she launched her own imprint, Divas Records, and put out the album My Way under that banner the same year.