Lady Ann Defends Singing Raunchy ‘Glammity’ In Church At Sister Charmaine’s Funeral
Social media erupted into rueful hand-wringing and recriminations over the weekend when veteran Dancehall deejay Lady Ann paid tribute to her beloved friend and colleague, the late Sister Charmaine by singing Leave The Glammity in church, last Saturday.
Clips of Lady Ann singing the raunchy song – Sister Charmaine‘s naughty first hit — have been making the rounds on social media, shocking some who thought the song to be inappropriate for a funeral.
Lady Ann certainly didn’t agree with their assessment.
“Charmaine would have loved that performance. Mi turn around and face the coffin so it was a tribute to her, mi know say she happy and she dance and she skin out in de, ah fi har style dat,” Lady Ann told DancehallMag.
“Ah the pull up everybody see with only the Glammity, but after that, mi do ‘mi is a girl from country’, and the whole church start rock, the church mash up, even the pastor start rock cause everybody start laugh. It wasn’t a disrespect, mi no deejay slack songs. But what is glammity? It just mean something tight, anno nothing negative, glammity is something good, people ah tek it the wrong way,” she said.
Lady Ann performed the song during the service and viewing, held at the Crawford Memorial Methodist Church in the Bronx, New York. She started with the gospel song, Closer Than a Brother before segueing into Sister Charmaine’s Leave The Glammity and Granny Advice.
Other performances came from Xanadu and Tuffist.
Members of the music fraternity present at the funeral service included Supa Barry, Michael Palmer, Sammy Dread, and Hanson Meditation, while Shabba Ranks and Don Angelo reportedly sent apologies, but “they helped out with the burial expenses”.
In the mid-1980s, a teenage Charmaine McKenzie met producer Winston Riley at his Chancery Street record store in Kingston and he recognized her talent. Riley produced Glammity, and his Techniques label was instrumental in her success. Granny Advice, Strong Body Gal, and Tightness were all produced by Riley.
Since her passing, tributes have been pouring in for Sister Charmaine, who was known for dominating stage cameos. Her performances on the Sting stage in 1988, when she appeared in a clash with Lady Mackerel and Junie Ranks, and again in 1989, when she clashed and defeated Lady G, Patra and Lady P, are considered legendary.
Responds To Macka
In closing, Lady Ann had a parting shot for Macka Diamond for comments the Bun Him deejay made in a recent interview.
“If me life never sort out, when she Macka Diamond come a foreign, she wouldn’t have a floor to sleep on. Through mi life sort out, mi can do things for her. Dem was all over Nancy, when dem realize Nancy no inna dem, dem come round me. Dem never like me or never like Charmaine, so mi no see why she do interview and ‘ah say anno fi her fault fi dem life no sort out’,” Lady Ann said.
Macka Diamond had told an interviewer that “anno my fault dem life no sort out’ in response to allegations made by Lady Ann that she had not contributed to Charmaine’s funeral and had made inappropriate comments about Charmaine.
“The female dem too corrupt, dem corrupt bad, it nuh look good, the way dem treat Charmaine, it hurt mi to the core, dem nah do no show wid we,” Lady Ann said.