Minister Marion Hall Says Lady Saw Fans Have Been Fighting Her Gospel Career
Former Dancehall Queen Lady Saw turned gospel artist Minister Marion Hall says some of her former fans have been fighting her career since her switch from secular music.
Her latest track, If I Was Famous, depicts the disparity.
“What inspired me to pen this track is the way I’m being treated now that I’m with Christ, and I’m in Christ,” Hall, 52, told DancehallMag.
“When I was famous, people used to be all over me as the song says; the song explains it all. You would have people pay a whole lot of money to see me. They would fly me there, people would give me gifts…When I chose Jesus, when it comes to love offerings ‘cause I do preach online and people would send you a little love offering here and there, but you have people that come online and say, ‘don’t give her nothing’ and those are the same people who would pay anything to come see me when I was famous”.
The independently produced track was released today (December 17) and is distributed by Zojak Worldwide.
According to Hall, she received divine instructions about what the beat should sound like, so producer Clarke from Chromatic, did not have to work too hard to create one.
“He called up some musicians that he had worked with before, and we went to the studio. It was easy to tell them what I wanted cause I just used my mouth to start making the sound and said, this is what the Lord gave me,” she said.
“I remember the musician was putting in something (else), and I said, you know what, this isn’t it. God didn’t give me that. I wanted it to remain the way the Holy Sprit gave it to me.”
Minister Hall was born in Galina, St Mary. As Lady Saw, she had her first local hit in the early 1990s with If Him Lef, followed by Find a Good Man. In August 1994, she released her first album entitled Lover Girl. However, by the mid-1990s she recorded more conscious songs like Condom and No Less Than a Woman.
In 2015, she made a drastic conversion to Christianity and has been walking that path since. Some of her other gospel releases include When God Speaks, His Grace and Mighty Warrior.
She however believes that praising God isn’t confined to a single genre, and hopes that her latest track will exemplify this.
“The message that I would love for listeners to take away from this song is that you can magnify the name of the Lord in any genre of music. You can praise God while rapping, singing R&B, while doing Dancehall or Reggae; whatever genre it is, we have no limit praising God. Whatever music, whatever sound, whatever genre, let the name of the Lord be magnified. Praise Him in the Dancehall, praise Him in the clubs, praise Him in the church, praise Him in the streets, He’s all over,” she said.