Spice is officially the Queen of Dancehall. On Festival Night One of Reggae Sumfest 2022 — in the early hours of Saturday, July 23, at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Complex in Montego Bay — host Miss Kitty called the deejay back to centre stage after her set, and festival producer Joe Bogdanovich placed the crown on her head.

It is the first time Sumfest has crowned a Queen since Lady Saw received the title in 2012. Marion Hall, as she is now known, left dancehall for gospel in 2015, and the throne has been contested ever since. Reports differ on the tiara itself — the Jamaica Observer described it as golden, DancehallMag as diamond-encrusted — but not on what it meant.

“How many years has it been since Marion Hall was here?” Bogdanovich asked the crowd, according to the Gleaner. “How long ago was that? You have been on this journey for so long to get to where you have been. Good luck to everybody else. Congratulations!” Spice’s son, Nicholas Lall Jr, joined her on stage and embraced her.

The set

Spice and her eight-strong Team Spice dancers arrived at roughly 2:49 a.m. in outer-space costumes, entering to “Different Category.” The set ran through “Sheet,” “So Mi Like It,” “Romping Shop,” “Send It Up” and “Go Down Deh,” her chart-topping collaboration with Shaggy and Sean Paul, before a costume change into a silver dress.

As she has done at Sumfest before, she also spoke over a one-drop, this time addressing Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who had recently criticised Skillibeng’s “Whap Whap” and Brysco’s “Code (Ensure).” “Honourable Andrew Holness a.k.a. Mr ‘Bro Gad’, I wanna reason with you tonight,” she told the crowd, before turning to police harassment, higglers and poverty.

‘I am a free artist’

The coronation doubled as a career announcement. Spice told the audience that her second studio album, Emancipated, is due on August 19, and that she is now an independent artist after a decade with VP Records. DancehallMag reports the set will come through UnitedMasters, and that the first single, “Clap Clap,” was released on Friday, July 22, under her own Spice Official ENT label. She also thanked Shaggy, who executive-produced her Grammy-nominated debut 10 (2021).

“I am super excited and elated about this and I am also humbled because at the end of the day it is highly deserving because mi work hard,” Spice told the Observer afterwards. “It’s been 20 years, it’s been a long time coming.” She added: “August 6 is Jamaica’s Independence, we’re celebrating 60 years of Independence and I am celebrating my own independence from my record label.” August 6 is also her 40th birthday.

Listen and dig deeper

Sources: Jamaica Observer — “#Sumfest2022: Spice ‘elated’ after crowning moment” (July 23, 2022); Jamaica Gleaner — “Reggae Sumfest gives Spice ‘royal assent’” (July 23, 2022); DancehallMag — “Spice Officially Crowned Queen Of Dancehall At Sumfest, To Release New Album ‘Emancipated’” (July 23, 2022).

Editor’s note: This story is part of an archive backfill covering Jamaican music news from 2022 to 2026. It is dated to the events it reports.