Skatta Burrell Says Reggae Sumfest Still Open To Adding Minister Marion Hall To Lineup

Reggae Sumfest executive Skatta Burrell says he had pulled back on his bid to woo Minister Marion Hall to perform at the iconic Reggae festival this July, after coming to the conclusion that she needed time to recalibrate, in the aftermath of January’s imbroglio with some of her female musical compatriots.

However, according to the Coolie Dance producer, there is still time yet to court the iconic Dancehall superstar, formerly Lady Saw, and add her to the lineup, as the festival’s concert nights will take place on July 22 and 23, exactly two months away.

“I honestly was making an effort a few months ago when she stepped out and there was like a whole heap of talk and controversy.  I did make a small effort but then I withdrew, because I think she deserves her time to heal, and whatever,” Skatta said in an interview during the launch of the festival on Thursday night.

“I acknowledge how important it is for her to still give the people just some thing, because whether she is singing Gospel, Dancehall, Reggae, this is her.  There is nothing else that she can do to contribute (greater) to society and even female empowerment.   She has a voice – and what better platform than Reggae/Dancehall that she has made her name on.  She can still use that same platform to teach and heal.  So that’s where my mind was but there is still a few week left or a few months – we don’t know what will happen,” he added whilst speaking with Billboard’s Pat Meschino in the video, which he shared on his IG page.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cdw2BjouEtG/

In early February, Skatta had announced that he was ready to book Hall for the Montego Bay-based show, following her announcement of a return, which had come approximately 14 months after she had declared in one of her Sunday Sermons, that she would “revisit Dancehall to win some souls”.  At the time he had posted a snippet of Lady Saw’s legendary last performance at Reggae Sumfest 2015, and implored her come to the festival and “minister to the audience”.

Declaring that she was missed by Sumfest, Skatta had also said back then, that whether the Room in My House singer was doing secular or gospel Dancehall, the genre was where the 52-year-old Grammy Award winner belongs and that she ought not to be pigeonholed into performing or writing for Christians only.

In 2015, the reigning Queen of Dancehall Saw had put on a commanding performance, for which the full complement of Reggae Sumfest patrons remained inside the Catherine Hall to see take place.  The If Him Lef artist had put on her usual engaging, humourous and risqué performance which enthralled the audience.   She reeled off a slew of lyrics in which made jabs at those female artists whom she said were giving her a fight, including several innuendoes aimed at Spice.

Hall had been mulling a return to Dancehall for some time.

In December 2020, Hall had said among other things, that as Lady Saw, she was “invited into the dancehall so Minister Hall is returning to the dancehall to bring some people to Church Hall” and would also be releasing a Dancehall album.

In December 2021, she had told Tamara McKayle on The Trailblazers show, that through her sheer talent, she could use the word of God in Dancehall style, to minister to and even clash and obliterate “‘in the name of the Lord”, any Dancehall rival, who tried to test her on any stage, anytime, anywhere, and would “rip them apart with just gospel, godly songs”.

She had also said that even in her old age, she could still rock Dancehall with gospel songs, if she wanted, but that God had told her, it was “time to preach”.

Weeks afterwards, she had, in a controversial sermon, said that she was on a mission to save her female colleagues in Dancehall irrespective of whatever “fight” she got.

However, by the end of January there was a full-scale online war of words, between herself Spice, Tanya Stephens, Macka Diamond and even Jada Kingdom, with claims, counter-claims and confessions of conspiracies and plots to derail each others careers, years ago.

The ‘cass-cass’ eventually fizzled after Hall withdrew from Instagram where she had been staging her sermons.