Dancehall Females With Most Billboard Hot 100 Entries; Queen of the Pack Patra, Shenseea, Diana King and Marion Hall

Nicolas SimpsonMay 31, 2023, 7:45 PM

Among the many spectacular talents that Jamaica’s music produced, four dancehall female entertainers have struck big and made it international to gain more than one entry onto one of the biggest music charts in the world; the Billboard Hot 100.

With their different music styles and sounds, Diana King, Patra, Marion Hall, and Shenseea, to date, have the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100 music chart for female dancehall artistes from Jamaica.

Marion Hall, formerly Lady Saw, has two entries on the prestigious chart with Smile and Underneath It All. Smile is a 1999 pop song by Vitamin C featuring Marion Hall that made it onto the charts at number 18. She also made it onto the chart a second time at number 3 for her collaboration with No Doubt on Underneath It All. Hall also earned a Grammy Award for the feature in 2004.

Tied at third place for the most songs on the Hot 100 charts for Jamaican females with Marion Hall is Shenseea, with two songs for her features on Kanye West’s Donda album. The entries are OK OK Pt. 2, peaking at number 12 on the chart, and Pure Souls, which peaked at number 52. Shenseea became the first female Jamaican artiste in over 17 years to make it onto the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Coming in at number two, Diana King charted with four songs on the charts with Shy Guy (From “Bad Boys”) in 1995, Ain’t Nobody in 1996, and I Say A Little Prayer and L-L-Lies in 1997. The songs peaked at numbers 13, 94, 38, and 71, spending 29, 4, 20, and 15 weeks on the chart respectively.

Topping the list of outstanding female artistes is Patra, with five songs landing on the international chart. She got her first entry onto the charts as a part of Shabba Ranks’ Family Affair (From “Addams Family Values”) at number 84 in 1994. Her second entry came shortly after in the same year with Worker Man, peaking at number 53. Romantic Call by Patra featuring Yo-Yo peaked at number 55 (1994) making three entries onto the chart.

Doing a remake of Grace Jone’s Pull Up To The Bumper, Patra earned her fourth entry at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (1995). The song also earned her spots on Billboard’s dance chart at number 15 and Billboard’s R&B Chart at number 21.

Rounding out her entries with number five, Patra charted with Scent Of Attraction featuring Aaron Hall at number 82 in 1996.

The list was shared online and Patra acknowledged her top position by stating, “We still topping the charts.”