Sonia Pottinger

Who was Sonia Pottinger?

Sonia Eloise Pottinger OD was a Jamaican reggae record producer.

The most important Jamaican woman involved in music business, Sonia Pottinger was the first female Jamaican record producer and produced artists from the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s.

Married to music producer Lyndon Pottinger, she opened her Tip Top Records Shop in 1965 and started to record musicians in 1966. The first single she issued was "Every Night" by Joe White & Chuck. Other artists recorded during this period include Roland Alphonso. Throughout the rock steady and early reggae eras, she became very prolific with hits by The Ethiopians, Delano Stewart, The Melodians, Ken Boothe, Alton Ellis and Toots & the Maytals, released on her Gay Feet, Tip Top, Rainbow, and High Note labels. In the early 1970s her work was less prolific, but in 1974 she bought the Treasure Isle label from long-time friend Duke Reid shortly before his death. Her rights to the label's recordings were challenged by the Jamaica Recording and Publishing Studio Limited, Reid's son Anthony and his company Treasure Isle Records International Limited, and Edward "Bunny" Lee, but the case was decided in her favour in 2009.