‘Marion Hall could add flavour to dancehall’ - Experts anticipate electrifying comeback!

The dancehall scene is buzzing with speculation about Marion Hall's possible return to the dancehall space. The born-again Christian has hinted at a return to her musical roots.

With tongues wagging about her possible impact should she return to the space, dancehall experts Professor Donna Hope and influential publisher Donovan 'JR' Watkis are confident that Hall's comeback would electrify the dancehall world.

"Lady Saw wouldn't have to blend in into dancehall now, everyone would expect her to do a more mature kind a music, similar to what they got from Buju Banton when he made the transition from dancehall to Til Shiloh - with a more conscious version of reggae/dancehall music. I can see Lady Saw coming back to dancehall music, but she'd have to be a more elevated Lady Saw. She couldn't go back to the 'belly rub a dub' Lady Saw and capture the audience, because the audience want that content from a younger source. But there is a space for Lady Saw because she has thousands of fans that would want to see her perform some of her songs," Watkis told THE STAR.

He reasoned that Hall wouldn't even need to write new songs, as she has a "countless number of conscious songs in her catalogue that she could tour with". In addition, Watkis argued that many Lady Saw fans believe no one has filled the void that was created when she left dancehall.

'I will never go back'

Hall walked away from the dancehall scene in 2015 to embrace Christianity. Despite facing a tough decade as a minister of the gospel, she has remained steadfast in her faith. "I will never go back to being Lady Saw," she said, while performing at Groovin' in the Park in New York last year.

However, it seems Hall, who leads the Holy Ghost Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ, is at a crossroads. "I'm about to make some of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my life, which may take me back to a place I never dreamed of returning to," Hall wrote on her now-deleted Facebook account. She followed this post with what appears to be the announcement of a new dancehall song, urging followers to stay tuned on her church's Facebook page.

"Listen out for my new dancehall single ... follow us on our new Facebook page, Holyghost Pentecostal Church of Jesus Christ, to be the first to hear it," she posted on Facebook.

Commenting on the developments, Hope said Hall has not been able to shake the Lady Saw image despite her embrace of Christianity.

"Base on the calibre of artiste that Lady Saw has been for over a long period of time, it's very difficult for her to shatter that image. Even though she has stepped away from dancehall in 2015, we have seen where she is still leaning towards the dancehall activities; even when she came to Sumfest with the Kiss Out Mi Bible [song] and handing out Bibles. So there's a way where her whole packaging as a gospel artiste has a lot of dancehall inflections to it, because that's what she learnt her craft in," the music professor shared.

She continued, "Many of us and people my age are actually waiting to see if she will either return fully to dancehall or begin to put out music that has more of a dancehall-gospel flavour that seem a little more authentic to who she is. Because it must be a sort of struggle for someone who has been on top of her game internationally as a renowned female in dancehall for decades, to become not just a gospel artiste, but a minister. If she had made a switch to become a dancehall-gospel artiste, it would've been little more comfortable in terms of how she's presented," she said.