The video for Action, which still gets rotation on Jamaican stations and is a regular on Tempo, was a landmark in itself. Done in April of 1994, it was a two-day shoot. Nadine Sutherland hand-picked the dancers and also did some of the choreography. Included were some dancers from Ashe and the University Dancers. "I wanted people with a formal background but could do the latest dancehall moves," Sutherland said. "I went to some dancehall dancers and got the moves. Then I went back to (choreographer) Kofi."Synchronising the moves took about a week, with Barbara Requa of the School of Dance and Spartan's Mickey Haughton-James providing rehearsal space.
"By the time the record company came down our dance routine was flawless," Sutherland said. And she really means 'our', because she was very much a part of the dancing. In fact, there is a memorable scene where she dances with a khaki clad young man on a median in the road. "He just came out spontaneously," Sutherland said. "We a dance pon the island and him just come out." Afterwards, "mi just see the director present him with a paper".
"Why it got played so much, it was a groundbreaking video, in that they saw dancehall, but they saw it differently. Little body did show, but we were dressed. It did sexy, but we were dressed," she said.
She said that recently she saw someone from VH1 who told her of the incredible effect the video for Action had when it came in.
There was one way in which Action was used, though, that was not of her choosing and raised fears of a bad reaction. It was used by the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in a general election campaign. "I remember going to the Tamika Awards and coming back and a man greeting me and saying 'congratulations, I hear your song on a political campaign'. By the time I left airport I was in shock when I saw the graffiti 'action, not a bag a mout'," she said. "Then I heard the version on the radio."
"That time was one of the hardest in my life. I was nervous, I was afraid, I was like 'I am not living this'. It was a different time. It was not 1980, but there were still people who believed they should harm you if you were different," Sutherland said.