First ladies of the dancehall mic

Pamputtae (born Eveana Henry in Kingston) broke through in dancehall in the mid-2000s and scored her defining hit with 2009's 'Single Mothers'; in 2018 she founded the Pamputtae Single Mother Foundation and has continued performing internationally while speaking out against body-shaming and colourism pressures in the dancehall scene.

Junie Ranks (born June Evans), from Old Harbour, St Catherine, was discovered by producer Winston Riley and recorded 'Counteraction' on the Stalag riddim before hits including 'Big and Ready' and a Canadian number one, 'Sea of Love'; she worked across the 1980s-90s dancehall production landscape with King Jammys, Steely & Clevie, Bunny Lee and King Tubby's, winning the 1989 Father Bins award for Female DJ of the Year.

Marion Marie Hall, born at Galina in Saint Mary on 12 July 1969, was performing on local sound systems at fifteen and took her name in 1987 from Tenor Saw, whose singing she had grown up on. Working the Stereo One system in Kingston, she made her way into a dancehall in which slackness was a male franchise, and matched it — explicit, unapologetic, and funny — which got several of her performances banned in parts of Jamaica while equally lewd men were left alone. That double standard is most of what her career is about. "Smile", cut with Vitamin C in 1999, went gold; "Underneath It All" with No Doubt in 2002 went triple platinum; the Grammy it won went to No Doubt, on whose record she was the featured vocalist. On 15 December 2015 she was baptised, left dancehall, and has recorded gospel since as Minister Marion Hall.

Warrior Queen (born Annette Henry in Kingston) is a dancehall and dub vocalist who relocated to Britain and became a key voice in the 2000s dubstep/dancehall crossover, recording with producers including Mungo's Hi Fi, Vex'd and The Bug.

Lisa Hyper (born Felecia Gooden) came up through Portmore Empire and a childhood connection to Vybz Kartel before her duet 'Whine for Me' brought heavy dancehall rotation; she has since worked with Beenie Man, Lady Saw and Gyptian across hits including 'Sculpture' and 'Champion Bubbler'.

Carol Theresa East, born 1959 in Denham Town, Kingston, who emigrated to Brooklyn at fourteen and was mentored into deejaying by Brigadier Jerry; her 1984 album Black Cinderella, which gave her a lasting nickname, helped her win Best Female DJ five years running (1983-87), and her father had worked as a Radio Jamaica engineer on Studio One sessions.

Sister Audrey, born in Britain to Jamaican parents and raised around her uncle's sound system, made her debut in 1982 with the Mad Professor-produced roots single 'English Girl' for Ariwa in collaboration with Jah Shaka's label; the song's re-releases became part of the public narrative around the 2018 Windrush generation scandal, and she later toured supporting Lee 'Scratch' Perry, Bob Andy, U-Roy and Macka B.

Sasha (born Christine Chin in Kingston, raised in Queens) began touring dancehall stages as a teenager and wrote 1998's sleeper hit 'Dat Sexy Body' on the Bookshelf riddim; her biggest hit, 2003's 'I'm Still in Love With You' with Sean Paul, revived the classic 'I'm Still in Love' riddim lineage before she turned to gospel music as Sista Sasha after 2008.

Ranking Ann is a British reggae deejay who came to prominence on her brother's Black Rock sound system in and around London, debuting with the uncompromising 'Liberated Woman' before releasing 'Love On A Mountain Top' in 1982 and later returning to a more overtly political style on 'Dangerous MC'.

D'Angel (born Michelle Downer in Spanish Town), dubbed dancehall's 'First Lady' by the Jamaica Gleaner, broke through in the early 2000s with 'Down a Mi Yard' and was named Singjay of 2008 at the EME Awards; she recorded the duet 'One Man' with singer Beenie Man in 2006.

Tifa (born Latifa Brown), known as 'Dancehall's Princess', grew up around Lady Saw through her stepfather's Diamond Rush Records before breaking through with 'Crawny Gal' on Ward 21's Dem Gal Sitt'n riddim and the radio hit 'Bottom of the Barrel'.

Lady G is a Jamaican dancehall deejay and singer active from the 1980s onward, part of the small but consistent line of women deejays who built careers alongside dancehall's male-dominated mainstream.