Twiggi

Born Mary Gittens on 27 October 1969 in Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies, she began singing and appearing on stage at the age of five. Her earliest performances took place in church and at school. By the closing years of the 1980s she had launched a professional recording career. Her first single, ‘Where Did The Love Go’, was helmed by Donovan Germain, the same producer responsible for the duet hit ‘Want It’ featuring Buju Banton. Alongside her own projects she worked as a session singer for Junior Tucker, Boris Gardiner, Burning Spear and the celebrated West African reggae star Alpha Blondy. Her reliable studio demeanor soon led to engagements on two major international tours supporting Jimmy Cliff and Toots Hibbert. Through that connection with the renowned lead singer of the Maytals, she joined the female vocal group 54-46 in 1990, stepping in for Hibbert’s daughter; the group took its name from his autobiographical hit. The stint proved brief, after which she returned to session singing. In 1997 she supplied backing vocals on Buju Banton’s album Inna Heights. Around the same period she issued ‘Remind Me’ on Gs Factory and recorded ‘Let’s Groove’ with Mikey Spice. Late in the decade she became part of the Shocking Vibes collective, delivering a string of successful tracks that included ‘It’s Too Late’, ‘Tears On My Pillow’, the Raymond Wright collaboration ‘Always’ and the Mega Banton duet ‘House Party’, plus two further successes with Beenie Man, ‘My Prerogative’ and ‘Bad Mind Is Active’.