The mother of superstar Stefflon Don has entered the foray of music as a reggae gospel artist.
Affectionately called Mumma London, she goes by her real name Mariah London and has released three tracks so far.
In a recent interview with Amel Rachedi on ‘Brunch with Amel’, Ms. London, who is based in England, speaks about the musical influences in her family that birthed the international superstar Stefflon Don, a son who is an artist and now she is being led on a similar path.
“My dad had a club and a restaurant. So growing up, I was always hearing music in Jamaica. Everywhere you turn. There was music. It was a lot, a lot of things going on. It’s everyday music, music. Wow. But the thing about it when all these things is going on, it was just the love of the music, but you didn’t know where it’s gonna take you, but you just know you love music, all different kinds of music,” she says.
Ms. London says she grew up in Jamaica and then moved to the United States for her schooling. Her children, who have strong ties to Jamaica and even maintain their native Patois, grew up in the Netherlands, where Stefflon showed an affinity for rapping before the family moved to England.
“In the years of the kids growing up, we were just [about] music. I was spending money on CDs. I always had a heavy music set at that time. So I’m always on the music channels in my house and you know, my kids were always listening to different, different types of music. So I didn’t know. I was preparing all, you know, it’s like preparing yeah. For this day or you know what I mean?” she says.
When asked about her daughter Stefflon’s first introduction to music, her mother says surprisingly it was a non-English speaking country where she first did her recording.
“Holland was quite good. Yeah. From there Steph really started doing her music. She did her first recording in Rotterdam. She did her first recording when she was about eight, nine years old, something like that. She was really good at the time too and she was always into this music, you know, because she was learning to do piano lessons, and she was always rapping.”
The mother of eight, two of whom, Stefflon Don and Dutch are artists, says the family’s financial hardships when they moved to England were many but despite all of that she is proud of her children’s ambitions.
“I’m really, really proud of my kids. I’m really happy because every, every one of my kids, they try to do something with their life, even the youngest ones because they are go-getters. Yeah. So I’m happy,” she said.
When asked about her own musical journey, surprisingly, Mumma London discloses that she is a reggae gospel artist.
“Well, because I’ve been in the church so long, like and I always put God first in everything I do, I believe in always speaking that and I know that people go through a lot of things, including myself, everyone go through some things. And I see my music as motivating people,” she tells Amel Rachedi.
Mariah London’s first song, “Your Time Has Come” (reggae mix), was released in late March and is now available on YouTube. The song is a motivational anthem she wants fans across the world to hear.
“I just want everybody to listen to my music. I would love the world to hear my music, you know? And because it’s uplifting and, and I believe that, you know, every music have some kind of category in your catalogue. You could enjoy different music, but there’s a time for everything. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I think my music is like that, you know, where you could just sit down and listen to it and, you know, be encouraged.”
As for what her biggest wish in music is, Mumma London wants artists to be unified and work together.
“I would love if everybody could just unite and work together,” she says when asked by Amel, “You’ve got [your] children already in the music industry. What, would you say is the one thing that you would change about the music industry?”
