Nadine Sutherland, the dancehall artist who gave us the world-renowned hit ‘Action,’ had opened up about how drug-addiction rumors, decades ago when she was at the zenith of Dancehall music, sent her into bouts of depression and almost destroyed her music career.
Speaking to Anthony Miller during an interview on The Entertainment Report on Friday, June 2, 2023, the 55-year-old said the following:
“It (the drug rumor) basically almost ruined me. I thought it would have passed, but it took on a life of its own… that some people wanted to believe it. Internationally it lost credibility. I lost faith in myself. I wasn’t suicidal, but I had suicidal thoughts because I couldn’t believe it could have taken on what it took on.”
“Everybody knows my story. I am a county girl, and I have a strict father. I know nothing of that life. I was very, very naïve. But I think there were a lot of things that contributed to it, and one was a little bit of envy. People wanted to see me ruined; wanted to see me in Half-Way Tree walking around naked, and probably they thought that would have happened,” Sutherland explained.
Nadine Sutherland
When Anthony Miller asked the Above Rocks, St Catherine star, what she thought was why the rumors spread like wildfire and took root, she said it was hard to fathom.
“It was like the suss (gossip) was so sweet, because drugs was so much in the popular culture in Jamaica, so they find a likkle Jamaican person weh dem could affix it to. Dem use to call mi di Jamaican Whitney Houston, and dem seh ‘all right a di same story'”, she surmised.
When Miller asked whether or not she had felt the need to “go public and deny those rumours,” the Baby Face singer said that her efforts were futile. However, she quickly pointed out that many allies rose to her defense to repudiate the assertions.
Nadine Sutherland
When Miller asked whether or not she had felt the need to “go public and deny those rumours,” the Baby Face singer said that her efforts were futile. However, she quickly pointed out that many allies rose to her defense to repudiate the assertions.
Her new single is Triumphant.