AT 33 years old, Champion Lover is one of those dancehall songs that has aged gracefully. Recently, singer Chavel Yahyel put a new sheen on the Deborahe Glasgow hit.

Her version is produced by Uel Genesis of Square Records in Montego Bay.

“I was with Laing from the reggaeology podcast who suggested Champion Lover, based on the style of my voice. He thought that I would do the song justice and after listening to it, he was spot on,” she said.

Champion Lover was co-written by Mikey Bennett and Hopeton Lindo, and produced by Gussie Clarke. It was released at a time when that trio was churning out hit songs aplenty from Clarke’s Music Works studio in Kingston.

Glasgow, who was born in Guyana but raised in the United Kingdom, gained a hard-core dancehall following with her sultry delivery. The song became an even bigger hit when Shabba Ranks added a deejay section, but Yahyel is more taken with the Glasgow version “because it had better vocals”.

Champion Lover is her follow-up to Light it Up, a song blasting ignorance surrounding ganja use in Jamaica. The Montegonian-born singer did that track with Chavez Illmatic for producer Matthew Clarke.

Chavel Yahyel grew up in South Florida where she developed an appreciation for different genres. Her influences range from “all the reggae greats” to Jah9, Jhene Aiko and Nicki Minaj.

— Howard Campbell