Meet the Sean Paul superfan who named her dog after the rapper

By Douglas Whitbread via SWNS

Meet the Sean Paul superfan who jetted off on vacation with a beach towel and matching suitcase cover honoring the Jamaican rap star.

Suzanne Downs, 44, owns an array of cups and t-shirts featuring the singer - and even renamed her rescue dog after him.

She fell in love with Paul's music over 20 years ago after finding his lyrics “hilarious” and his looks equally alluring.

When the mom-of-four re-homed a German Shepherd in February this year, she decided to name the sweet female pup Shauna Paul after her musical hero.

Suzanne, an NHS nursing assistant, insisted on taking her Sean Paul beach towel and matching suitcase cover as she jetted off to Mallorca, Spain, on Tuesday.

And when she returns to the UK, a pal will write to Sean Paul’s manager to try to arrange a personal meeting for her.

She said: “I’d absolutely love to have my photograph taken with Sean Paul. It would be my dream come true.

“If I did, I probably wouldn’t say anything. I’d probably just stutter. He makes me feel like a giddy teenager. I’m 44 years old. I’m a mom, but I can’t help it.”

“My friend is also on holiday, but when she gets back, she's going to get on the case and try to find his manager’s email.

“Most people have their day, and then you don’t hear about them anymore. But he’s still going strong.”

Suzanne, from Morpeth, Northumberland, UK, started listening to Paul’s music when she was in her mid-20s, as the star began releasing his first records.

She said: "It was years ago – in the early noughties – and I just thought his music was fun. I used to think some of the lyrics are hilarious. So it was that initially.

“But as I got older, I thought, ‘Actually, he’s quite good-looking.’

“I just think the music is so creative - I know all the music – and there are weird and wonderful things that he comes out with that just work.”

Suzanne's favorite tracks are "Like Glue" and "Get Busy," from Paul's seminal Album "Dutty Rock," and she still plays them in her house everyday to the annoyance of her neighbors and kids.

She said: “I play his songs anywhere I can listen to them. If I go for a bath, I’ll put them on outside the bathroom, and if I’m doing housework, I’ll listen to them there.

“It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, I’ll play Sean Paul. My neighbors and my kids must really be sick of it."

Suzanne said she didn’t plan to name her new dog after the 49-year-old megastar, but when she fell in love with the unwanted pooch, she had a sudden flash of inspiration.

She said: “I was looking for a dog - I wanted to re-home a dog rather than get a puppy - and when I saw her, I thought: 'She’s absolutely lovely.'

“But I didn’t have my plans to call my dog Shauna Paul.

“I don’t know where it came from, but I thought, 'I’ll call her Shauna Paul.' My sister said, 'That’s possibly the best idea you’ve ever had.'"

She added: “The other morning, I was on Facebook, watching a video. When it finished a random video came up, and it was Sean Paul.

"Shauna just looked at it. She must recognize that music as I’ve got it all the time.”

Suzanne said she’s seen Sean Paul perform only once when he came to Newcastle, UK, in 2019, but since then she’s been completely smitten with the singer's music.

And she now hopes to meet him in late August after getting tickets to see him perform in the Northern city’s O2 City Hall.

She said: “It was when I saw him three years ago that I realized how much I actually liked him. He’s actually quite witty. He’s quite funny as well and I like that about him.

“So I’m going to go to the venue really early to make sure I’m right at the front.

Suzanne said that she had collected Sean Paul memorabilia over the years and has even created her own fan art from a picture she’d taken of the singer at a previous gig.

She said: “I’ve got a Sean Paul beach towel - that’s coming on holiday with me - and I’ve got a suitcase cover.

“I’ve also got his photograph printed onto a bag after I’d seen him. It was one of my photographs - and I've got cups, key rings, tee-shirts, stuff like that."