Barbara Gloudon, The Most Deejayed-About Journalist In Dancehall, Has Died
Tributes have been pouring in following the passing of iconic Jamaican journalist and talk show host Barbara Gloudon, the playwright who etched veteran Dancehall artist Josey Wales’ 1986 cautionary hit song Wrong Move into the ears and psyche of Jamaicans, and whose name Vybz Kartel and Buccaneer immortalized in punch lines in four songs.
Mrs. Gloudon, who for many years was a major voice on Radio Jamaica’s Hot Line programme, died in hospital on Wednesday night. She was 87 years old.
Her radio play Wrong Move, whose soundtrack used the hook of Josey Wales’ song, which was voiced on the Punany riddim, was the most successful of its kind during the time it was aired on Radio Jamaica.
Vybz Kartel seemed to have been a listener of Mrs. Gloudon’s, whose Hotline program was the most popular in Jamaica when he was a youth and even up to a few years ago when she retired. Either that, or he knew how huge her influence was, since he mentions her three times in his songs Start Well and Bus Mi Tool, and then again in Knock It.
In the Don Carleone-produced Start Well, Kartel sings: “Who da tall youth deh/Dem have mi inna dem thoughts/Barbara Gloudon dem call a ask: ‘Who is Vybz Kartel?'”
In Bus Mi Tool, Kartel sings: “It big so till people ah call Barbara Gloudon and a discuss mi gun”
In Knock It, he also uses the late talk show host’s name in a simile, to compare the fact that he speaks less and supposedly makes his weapons do the talking.
“More gun than Cuban mi nuh chat like Barbara Gloudon/
New brand rifle come from Sudan reach me quick like Western Union,” he sings.
Buccaneer, on the other hand, on his 1996 Mainstreet Records-produced track Nowadays Woman, in his usual comedic fashion, warned men that they cannot win any argument with women, singing: “Mind how yuh disrespect nowadays woman/Is like dem get dem tracin lessons from Barbara Gloudon…”
Josey Wale’s Wrong Move, which was a petition by The Colonel, to youth to stay on the straight and narrow even in spite of poverty, was produced by Lloyd ‘King Jammy’ James.
“Wrong Move, Wrong Move don’t you meck no wrong move/Tell all di yute dem fi guh meck a right move,” he sang in the hook which was used for the soundtrack of Gloudon’s radio play.
Aired mid-mornings on RJR in the 1980s to the 1990s, the Wrong Move radio series, was a true-to-life depiction of Jamaican society, “portraying sharply drawn and engaging characters in whose fluctuating fortunes the listening audience became deeply engrossed”.
In 2017, Gloudon, under her playwright hat, immersed Dancehall into the Little Theatre Movement Pantomime, with the play Dapper Dan the Anansi Man, about a dancer-promoter-businessman who many think is a trickster, but who really was only seeking a way to make money from the entertainment industry. Dapper Dan, who entered the stage in stylish outfits with big gold chains and freestyles dance moves, was said to remind many people of the legendary Black Roses dancer Bogle.
“The younger generation is constantly talking about dancehall, but there are different tastes. One of the things we look on for inspiration is where the audience comes from,” Gloudon had said at the time of the production.
Mrs. Gloudon was born in Malvern, St. Elizabeth, but grew up in Kingston after her family moved there early in her life. She attended St. George’s Infant & Primary School before moving on to the St. Andrew High School for Girls, after which she entered journalism, making her debut at The Gleaner.
In the early 1980s, she ventured into broadcasting as host of RJR’s Hotline, where she attracted a “massive following with her folksy delivery and wit.” Mrs Gloudon also presented the weekly Anglican radio show, Think on These Things, on Radio Jamaica for many years. The revered playwright also went on to become the chief writer and producer for the Annual Pantomime.