Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Jamaica's Sunshine Girls - Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer

Singer Pam Hall got the idea of actually doing a song for the 'Sunshine Girls', Jamaica's senior netball team, about two years ago, but her sporting interest was there long before.

"I used to play netball as a child in school. The three main sporting events I attend are netball, soccer and track and field. I have been going to these events since I was about 11," Hall said, counting Edwin Moses, Florence Griffith-Joyner and Pele among the sporting greats she has seen at the National Stadium.

"One, I am a sports fan. Two, I am a fan of the Sunshine girls. They have been one of our best performers for a long time. They have not been getting much help. I see other people giving them a hand, but it is not enough," she said.

Hall, whose most recent album is Songs in the Key of Dancehall, said she did quite a lot of the writing while in Hawaii earlier this year. And the project for the song, aptly named Sunshine Girls, was far from being a solo effort, as from the outset "I spoke to Gibby (musician and videographer) about it, to do something for the girls, so we did it".

Added members

Pam Hall - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

The project grew to include vocalists Pam Hall, Pashon, Leiba Hibbert, Keisha Patterson, Nadine Sutherland, Shirley McLean, Tafina Wilson, Heather Cummings, Christopher Martin, D Major and Dalton Browne, with Hall, Charmaine Bowman, Gibby and Sly Dunbar as the musicians. Hall and Gibby, along with guitarist Dwight Pinkney, mixed Sunshine Girls, in which the beat changes from one drop to dancehall in medley fashion. This was done "to make it more interesting, to have an edge, especially for video purposes".

The song has the approval of the Jamaica Netball Association, as Hall says she had been in touch with president Monica Bernard throughout the project, which was completed in time for the just-concluded home series with England. In fact, Hall, McLean and Pashon performed the song at the first game.

Although the Sunshine Girls lost that game and the series, Hall says "losing is a part of the journey. It is a long journey they have been on. I figure they are going to put their heads down and come up with something.

"This is my little contribution," Hall says of Sunshine Girls, in tribute to the Sunshine Girls.