Lady Saw born as Marion Hall, is a Jamaican reggae singer born in Saint Marie, Jamaica. The daughter of a farmer/fisherman and a domestic house worker is the middle child out of nine children. The whole family lived with her grandma in a one room house. The family was very poor and struggling to survive, with even the children doing whatever they could to help get money for food. The whole family picked various nuts and fruits to sell at the local market, and Marion would work as a domestic worker, as did her mother, in trade for food and clothing.
As female reggae artist trying to make it in a male dominated world, Marion Hall was not dissuaded. First taking the name Lady Saw as a tribute to the well known deejay Tenor Saw, and then writing lyrics as full as sexual innuendos as any man could (called Slack), Lady Saw caught the attention of both fans and critics. The controversy that has followed the once mistaken for a boy, choir girl has been quite extensive. The reggae star feels the judgment is unfair. Lady Saw has been quoted dismissively saying “A lot of men do it, and nothing comes of it.
Her second album titled “Give me a Reason” includes a song titled “What is Slackness?” firing back at those who throw stones at her. This bad girl accused political lies and corruption to be much more “slack” then she is. The controversy continued into 1994 being banned from many Jamaican parishes and newspapers and onto eventually criminal charges. In 2001 along with Rodney Price (also known as Bounty Killer) she was sentenced to 240 hours of public service after being charged and found guilty of breaking the laws governing public lewdness.
Lady Saw has said she has tried to calm down the lyrics and performances, but her fans demand what they have come to know and love about her. They want Lady Saw to be what she has created. She knows her fans are why she even exists and she says she will continue to please them. So far her theory has worked; in 2003 she became the first female reggae artist to ever win a Grammy. She won the Grammy for Best Group or Duo for her performance on No Doubt’s single “Underneath it All.” She is also the first woman to headline shows outside of Jamaica. She seems to have her career just taking off, with an award recently in 2011 for Video of the Year from Youth View Awards.
She quickly will proclaim Lady Saw and Marion Hall are not the same person. The girl that she is offstage has been reported as homely and loving, a far cry from the sexual blatant woman that is Lady Saw. After watching Lady Saw’s videos though, I find them no worse then many of our North American pop stars, the difference being only that Lady Saw isn’t twenty years old living in Canada or the United States. Obviously her critics have never seen Lady Gaga.