detroit's 1st annual dancehall queen competition June 2007
story by montana
pictures by west suburbs

 I was very excited to see Detroit's 1st Annual Midwest Dancehall Queen Competition and decided to drive from Chicago with West Suburbs to witness the show. We got to the hotel in Southfield Michigan around 5 hours after leaving Chicago and right away we ran into Big J of Pure Playaz who had arrived in Detroit a couple of days ago from Montego Bay. Next we saw contestant Diamond from the Virgin Islands by way of Toronto. Big J, WS, Diamond and I packed our supplies and left the hotel around 1130pm.
 

We arrived at the venue, "Magic Stick" around 12midnight. The place is located up a flight of stairs above a pizza parlor and it's a wonderful venue! Nice big stage and plenty of room. We got there just in time to see Momo from Canada perform. I hadn't seen Momo since the Dancehall Queen Competition in Jamaica, so it was great to see her again and the crowd seemed to really like her performance.



Styles from the Reggae Girlz, who was MCing the competition along with Suga and Spirit, was looking lovely like a she was ready to compete herself in this amazing bustier and white shorts. After a short 'Dancehall Granny Skit' and a performance by Rastafarian artist Derrick Irie, it was time for the contest to begin. They moved the judges table onstage (among the judges were Momo and Dancehall Queen Spider from Cleveland) and brought up the contestants for introduction one by one. They had 8 contestants and all of them looked ready!


Highlights from the first round included Sexy Body Tracey who was a big woman.  It was a nice change to see a plus sized woman competing. She did some wicked wines and had the crowd screaming. Diamond, a newcomer to the US competitive scene came out 1st and shocked the crowd by starting her routine from the top of the tallest speaker box. The music was playing and the crowd was looking all around for her because no one was on the stage and then we finally noticed her waaay up in the left corner of the stage perched high on the box.



Another creative contestant, Kitty from Detroit's Hotta Flexx Crew, came out in Pink hair and a Choir robe and then ripped it off to reveal her batty riders.


Selebrity, who some of you may remember from the 1st annual Midwest Dancehall Queen Competition in Chicago, in 2005 (she was the runner up after Candi), came out 6 th in the queue. She came out with a black baggy jacket and pants jacket emblazoned with a dragon and a plastic uzi and jumped around to "Over the Wall" with the gun. The crowd went wild. She's obviously the local favorite by FAR. This is where it got very interesting because my girl ripped off the jacket and black pants she was wearing to reveal an almost naked body! In the pictures you can see, if you look closely, she had "DHQ for ME" painted on her chest and "Reggae Girlz" on her backside next to a butterfly. She was wearing nothing else but pasties and a g string. The crowd went BALLISTIC! She even ripped off her wig in the middle of her performance to show her hair-shortish red dyed dreadlocks rude girl style.

Selebrity has an interesting aura about her if you look closely. During the Chicago competition, Selebrity did very well, but she seemed to have some kind of far away look in her eyes, like she was thinking of something else or was somewhere else. Now, when I saw her on her home turf, the look was still there, but I could tell it was a look of ecstasy because my girl was totally wrapped up in another dimension-taken away by the music and enraptured and letting the music control her body to the point where 'tek way yuhself' is fully explained and realized. If you can't feel what I'm saying, watch some of the best queens dance and you'll see this in their eyes. They actually love what they're doing, love the dancing, the music, the crowd and you can feel the energy just watching them.



At this point, I was damn near shaking with excitement-this contest was off the METER and I couldn't control myself any longer and hopped up on to the stage out of the throng pressed to the front (ok, some girl's purse was pressing me in my back until then too, so I was ready to hop up from long ago anyway). The crowd was going wild and I joined WS who was taking pics next to the speaker box and judges table onstage.


After Selebrity the crowd was in for more shockery when Blackberry, a beautiful tall contestant wearing traditional bikini dancehall Queen Attire with a very interesting Jamaican flag design painted on her face covered in rhinestones came onstage literally hanging/crawling Spiderman style from one of the pipes high above the stage. She crawled to the middle and dropped all the way down and slammed down in the middle of the stage straight into a split. Amazing! She did some wonderful renditions of the "Drop Dead" dance too.



Now, after the first round, indeed more shocks were in store for this contest. It was already 135 and the venue was set to close at 2 so I was wondering how they were going to get 2 more rounds in. I was up by the speaker box onstage and by this time was joined by Destiny, American Dancehall Queen and Simone, DHQ from Canada. They began round 2 and the music was playing. Before we knew what was going on, the crowd began to rush up towards the stage and there was tension on the air. People were trying to escape. I ducked behind the curtain and went over by the back exit and watched as a few people ran down the stairs. Word was that either someone was shooting or fighting downstairs.



Everyone calmed down and I got back onstage and saw that the crowd had thinned a little, but most were still there anxiously looking up at the stage to find out what would happen next. The DJ was calling towards the stage trying to get the show started again, but nothing was happening. We were looking around and again there was some commotion towards the back of the stage. The tension returned to the air and everyone made a quick escape. We were holding our corner by the speaker box on stage though and thinking, "Damn, not again!?" when the police walked in (for once I was almost relieved to see the police after realizing the venue never searched any of the patrons upon entering so anyone could have anything…) and told everyone they had to go.

As I told the reggae girls, and I'll tell you readers, this was one of the BEST dancehall queen competitions I've seen despite the way it ended. There is a LOT of talent in Detroit and you can tell the contestants take their craft very seriously.



Big up Reggae Girls for taking the time and energy to put on such a wonderful show. I talked to them afterwards and they were extremely upset and just wanted to make sure that 'everyone was safe'. They are extraordinary women who've done things that a lot of women aren't able to do in the reggae industry so they should be commended to the utmost.



Big up J from Pure Playaz, Killaface Sound, Roots Rock Sound all the contestants, judges and fans. I am anxiously awaiting the decision to see who will represent from Detroit in the Midwest Dancehall Queen Competition in Chicago. Whoever it is, judging from this past weekend in Detroit, they will represent WELL!

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