AS A member of Boney M she clocked up 150 million album sales and had hits all over the world.
But Croydon girl Marcia Barrett insists her career is far from over and is ready to show the world she can rock.
The 64-year-old has just put the finishing touches to a solo album that includes tracks written for her by Eddy Grant and sees her tackling musical genres that fans might not expect.
The patron of the Dance for Peace movement spoke to The Advertiser on a rare visit to her former home and reminisced about the first time she came to these shores.
She said: "I moved to Croydon from St Catherine's in Jamaica when I was 13. I tell you it was a shock. When I saw fog for the first time I thought people were having a smoke somewhere and then it escaped in to the air.
"When I saw snow I thought 'Oh my goodness, what is that?' but it was so beautiful and I just thought 'Well ok, you're in another country.'"
Marcia began her professional career as a dancer and moved to Germany aged 19. It was while working there that her singing talents were spotted and she started performing as Marcia from Jamaica, which led to an introduction to join the group that eventually became Boney M.
The group went on to score number one hits with Rivers of Babylon and Daddy Cool but split up in 1990.
She has since released two solo albums made up of songs recorded with her husband Marcus James.
She said: "My husband and I started to compose while I was with Boney M, so I wanted to show the world that I could do other things.
"We've got a library of music so unbelievable.
"There are also tracks from Eddy Grant; tracks that he'd written for me in the 1980s.
"These were things we were concentrating on even though I was ill. I am a cancer survivor five times. Sometimes I'd come out of hospital and I'd be clutching my stomach singing the demos.
"Then we go in and we polish this up, patch this up, patch this up and it has turned into a magnificent double CD.
"You'll hear everything, you'll hear rock nobody would have ever believed it's me. You'll hear ballads, love songs and of course pop."
