10 years after ditching Lady Saw, Minister Hall remains committed

A conversation with Minister Marion Hall, the former Queen of the Dancehall, who ditched her raunchy Lady Saw alter ego 10 years ago today when she got baptised, is peppered with the refrain “I bless the name of the Lord”. And like all genuine Christians, she gives thanks and praise before, during, and after the storm. Minister Hall was one of the performers at the One Love Jamaica Rebuild Hurricane Melissa relief concert on December 6 at The Faith Center in Sunrise, Florida.

The Sunday Gleaner reached out to Minister Hall post-concert for her personal review of the initiative, her wishes for Christmas, and a recap of the year 2025 career-wise. Today marks a milestone: 10 years since she was baptised and emerged cleansed and ready to perform in a different way.

“At the concert last week, it was very important for me to minister ... not perform because I don’t perform no more. There was some spirit of hindrance, you know, some other entity was trying to block me from going forward with this concert. From the moment I said yes, there was warfare all over ... spiritual warfare, setback, delay. It even happened in the traffic, like, you’re driving to get to rehearsals, and there’s the biggest roadblock, and I just couldn’t go anywhere at the entrance. Things has been happening since I say yes to Bishop [Henry Fernandez of the organising committee],” Hall shared.

Bishop Fernandez has been part of Hall’s life in Florida following her new walk with God after being baptised by Bishop Everton Thomas in Jamaica on Monday, December 14, 2015, at the Emmanuel Apostolic Church in St Andrew.

“God moved me here because there was a lot of publicity at the time in Jamaica. So God kind of hid me in Florida. So it was a blessing being here because he was the bishop who I got fed from spiritually. Bless the name of the Lord. And it was a blessing to be at the concert.”

Addressing the mood of the concert, at which more than US$129,000 was raised, Minister Hall said that the people were “hungry”.

“All the Jamaicans and other people from other islands and here in America they were hungry. They were waiting. They wanted to support with not just money but to be there in person. It was all love and unity and joy and laughter. Everyone was just happy to be there. So it was beautiful. People were just loving each other and giving, you know. Bless the name of the Lord,” Hall said.

CHRISTMAS WISH

Hall, who shared that she has learnt to be content with whatever she has, nonetheless has a special wish for Christmas.

“My Christmas wish list is for God to bless me in such a way that I’ll be able to feed more than just 300 people this Christmas,” she outlined. “So, I’m trusting God for a financial breakthrough, a financial blessing, where I’ll be able to do way more than supply the homeless in Kingston. I want to be able to reach Westmoreland or somewhere in St Elizabeth, somewhere where people were affected by the hurricane. I don’t wish anything for me. I just wish [for] God [to] do it for me so I can do it for others,” she outlined.

And as the curtains are about to fall on the year 2025, Hall candidly shared that she didn’t do much career-wise.

“I went into the studio, but again, [there was] the spirit of hindrance, the spirit of setback, the spirit of delay, so I kind of just recorded some songs. The first song I did is titled Freedom. I went to Jamaica, and I did some work with Brother Dean Fraser, and that was one of the songs. I also worked with Drop the Bass, and I’ve been producing my own tracks. I have stuff ready, but it’s gonna be 2026,” Hall stated.

However, on her agenda for the year was church-building because she had been instructed that it was time for her to preach. But there was a twist. Some people started visiting, expecting it to be one of those celebrity-studded churches, crawling with the rich and famous. It wasn’t. Hall pointed out that despite her being billed on certain secular events, her calling “is not for celebrities”.

“God will send me back sometimes to the same place I’m coming from. Like, for instance, Sumfest or to Tony Rebel concert, or Groovin’ in the Park. He’ll send me sometimes to minister to people who I used to sing to. So what I did, I prayed. I say, ‘God, send people up in here who are seeking you, and not just coming to see me, because they’re coming to see Lady Saw. God, let it be that when they come up here, they don’t see Lady Saw, they see you’. And I remember one morning, uh, one of the visitors was giving a testimony, and she said: ‘I came here to see Lady Saw this morning, but what I saw in here is the Holy Ghost. This is the church of the living God.’”

Hall, who has remained steadfast in her commitment for the last decade, shared that miracles have been happening around her. There was even one instance when she was instructed to run around the church, and she had no idea why. She said that she later found out that she was running for a woman who had kidney issues and could not move.

“I am a true woman of God. I really am doing according to His will. I’m living for Him. I am called, and when people say she’s not a Christian ...oh, she’s this, and she’s that, and people believe, I’m, like, the Bible said, ‘Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirit’. Oh ... I just love when people come around me and they say, ‘Oh, you know, I came to church today to see Lady Saw, but what I saw this morning is that the Holy Spirit is upon this woman’ and I’m like ‘Thank you, Jesus,’” she said in a celebratory, sing-song voice and with a chuckle.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com