Acclaimed Dancehall artist and songwriter Tanya Stephens’ 10th studio album is scheduled to be released in July. Produced by Tad’s Records, throughout the course of the lockdown due to the pandemic, it comes eight years after her last album, Guilty, which was released in 2014.
“Junior Tads and I have been talking about it for a while. We kind of ended up being an outlet for each other during the pandemic. Tads studio became my space for grounding. I am a picky person when it comes to my professional home, and Tads Records carry my exact thoughts and ideas. This is somewhere that can nurture that. We are right on schedule,” the St. Mary native told The Gleaner recently.
Tanya, who turns 49 in July, is rated among Jamaica’s finest lyricists. She broke onto the Dancehall scene in 1996, with Yuh Nuh Ready fi Dis Yet, on Dave Kelly’s Joyride riddim.
After that success, she thereafter began working with such acclaimed producers as Bobby “Digital-B” Dixon, Barry O’Hare, Harvel “Gadaffi” Hart, and Tony Kelly, later voicing singles such as Draw fi Mi Finger, Freaky Type, and Cry and Bawl a collab with Bounty Killer.
In addition to writing songs for herself, Tanya has written songs for other artists, among them Spread Love, which was featured on Etana’s Grammy-nominated album Reggae Forever as well as Rock The Cradle which she wrote for Sanne Salomonsen from Denmark. She also contributed backing vocals on Garnett Silk’s 1998 album Journey which included hit songs such as Mama and Every Knee Shall Bow.
In 2019 the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association (JaRIA) honoured the hitmaker for her contribution to the music industry as a songwriter.
