Dancehall Queen Carlene Smith mourns passing of her sister, Pinky
Pinky, a popular figure in the dancehall in the 1990s and elder sister of Dancehall Queen Carlene Smith, has died.
Pinky, whose birth name is Doreen Prendergast, died in the United States on Saturday after a long battle with cancer, Carlene announced in an Instagram post on Sunday.
“This is one of the hardest things I’ll ever have to do, I hope, in my entire life… I don’t think it can get any harder than this. Yesterday at 3:15 Pinky passed. You guys know Pinky is my sister, we’re real sisters, it’s not just saying sister. Y’all know she was dealing with the deadly disease cancer for a couple years, it got worse last year and I really thought we were gonna get over this,” Smith said.
Fighting back tears, she said the last 30 days have been “really hard,” and she has not been sleeping.
“Death is inevitable, we know this, but I still thought we were gonna have more time with her. Pinky was a soldier on a real hard battle field. Not just this time, but a lot of times. You know she got shot… and she rode the time,” Smith stated.
“She had some good life. I’m really here to tell you all who has been supporting her. I knew this was going to be hard. I was just hoping that I could and will try to do my best. But most importantly I want to thank you all,” Smith added.
The Dancehall Queen went on to say that despite the difficulty in doing the Instagram live she had to do it “for you guys today because when we were on that journey I came out a lot and told you about what I was doing and how I was doing it.”
In 2022 Smith had shaved her head in solidarity with Pinky’s fight, and has been a rock in the fight to save her sister’s life. Last April the family was able to raise over US$4,000 to go towards treatment for Pinky.
Of note, Dancehall star Beenie Man had started the ‘Pinky Initiative’, a campaign geared towards raising funds to help Pinky in her cancer fight.
Smith and Pinky revolutionised dancehall fashion in the 1990s with their daring, flesh-baring designs and dancehall panache. Both Smith and Pinky appeared in several music videos for artistes including Beenie Man, Tiger, and the duo Chaka Demus and Pliers.
