Skatta Burrell Ready To Book Marion Hall For Reggae Sumfest 2022
Reggae Sumfest executive Skatta Burrell says he is ready to book Marion Hall for the iconic Reggae festival, following her announcement of a return, which comes approximately 14 months after she declared in a Sunday Sermon, that she would “revisit Dancehall to win some souls”.
Over on his Instagram page, the Coolie Dance producer posted a snippet of Lady Saw’s legendary last performance at Reggae Sumfest 2015, on Dancehall night, where she was not only the closing act but made Dancehall history by becoming the first female artist to close the show since its inception.
Saw had held the entire audience riveted for more than an hour, even in the blaring sun which came up during her performance that began about an hour after daybreak.
“Lady Saw please come to #reggaesumfest and Minister🙏🏾 to the audience. I believe you alone can quell the crime wave currently sweeping this island starting with the city of Montego Bay….. this July is the right time for a season of prayer and worship,” he captioned the post.
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According to Skatta, whether secular or gospel Dancehall, the genre was where the 52-year-old Grammy Award winner belongs and should not be pigeonholed into performing or writing for Christians only.
“I’m so loving this 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰. #reggaesumfest misses You Lady Saw,” Skatta posted in response to an Instagram post about the iconic deejay’s return.
“Lady Saw is a Dancehall icon and deserves to be celebrated on the biggest platform for our music. She’s got soo much more to offer and (don’t) deserve to be limited to any Gospel audience. We welcome Her with open arms to deliver whatever song she wishes to perform because she’s great at any and everything she does on the stage. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏,” he added.
“She is a great artist who deserves to do what she does best. Until then she won’t be a peace not even in the church,” he continued.
Burrell has announced that Reggae Sumfest 2022 will be held between July 20 and July 23.
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In 2015, Lady 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.
Unlike the times when patrons would file out of the Catherine Hall venue by the time they had caught a glimpse of, or viewed a few minutes into the performance of the male closing acts, patrons remained riveted to the grounds of the complex for the Queen of Dancehall.
The If Him Lef artiste 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.
And, it was only after she announced that she would be doing her last song Heels On that several patrons began to file slowly out of the venue, to beat the Montego Bay morning traffic.
Hall’s return to Dancehall has been a long time coming, and comes as no surprise to those who have been watching her carefully and listening to her utterances over the last year or so.
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.”
At the time she had said she would 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.
“I have this talent that is beyond me. It’s like it just exceed my expectation and others. Even now, I could step out and stand beside any one of those females and rip them apart with just gospel, godly songs,” Hall had said.
“I could use the word of God and just minister – you know, but the word is not to compete; the word is to win souls, but if… someone should place me beside (them), I could rip the Devil apart. I would bring that person over with the word of God,” the Room in My house artist had continued.
She had also said that even in her old age, she could still rock Dancehall with gospel songs, if she wanted.
“Listen, I don’t know why God give me this talent, but Lord Jesus, let me tell you this: I can’t contain what’s inside of me. Even then, I was just lyrically inclined… I could go on to 100 year old and still be the best at what I do,” she had said.
“A lot of people see me here and they believe that ‘she just parked up’. No. God told me it’s time to preach. He told me while I was in Birmingham…If I wanted to be out there, I would be out there. But God has a time when he lock us in,” she said.
Three weeks ago, 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.
“People of God, the lord said is reaping season and I will guh down dere and reap dem. I will reap dem out of every corner, everywhere in Dancehall; if I have to come there and go and do the work, lay hands everything, that’s where I’m going. And if it cause you to come up against mi, it does not matter. I will reap for the Kingdom of God,” she said.