Dina Carroll

Geraldine "Dina" Carroll (born 21 August 1968) is an English singer and songwriter. She had a string of hits during the 1990s, including the UK top ten singles "It's Too Late", "Don't Be a Stranger" (1993), "The Perfect Year" (1993), and "Escaping" (1996). Carroll released two studio albums, So Close (1993) and Only Human (1996), both of which reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and were certified platinum. She won Best British Female Solo Artist at the 1994 Brit Awards.

Early career Carroll was born in Newmarket, England, to a Scottish-Irish mother and an African-American father. She started singing aged five, and despite the lack of formal vocal coaching, she won a local talent competition London-based record label StreetSounds, Carroll moved to West London and recorded two singles for the company's StreetWave dance music singles label called "Set It Off" and "One Nation". Released in 1985, both records were credited to a non-existent group called Masquerade, with "One Nation" being a track based around a number of Parliament-Funkadelic songs such as "One Nation Under a Groove" and "Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give Up the Funk)". After six unproductive months, she left StreetSounds/StreetWave, with Khan going on to use the Masquerade name again for the number 64 hit "(Solution to) The Problem" and a megamix called the "Streetsounds Real Thing Mix".

In 1989, Carroll secured a recording contract with Jive Records/Zomba and released a number of singles in 1989 and 1990. but unlike the former's "Such a Good Feeling" and the latter's "Bass (How Low Can You Go)", both tracks failed to reach the top 40.

After a short time at Jive Records, Carroll was spotted by Oliver Smallman, one half of First Avenue Management, a small and newly founded management group. First Avenue were already managing a dance production duo called Quartz, made up of Ronnie Herel and Dave Rawlings, and so Carroll was brought in to provide vocals for the duo on their cover of Carole King's "It's Too Late". so a follow-up collaboration was also recorded. This follow-up single was called "Naked Love (Just Say You Want Me)" and reached number 39 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the last hit single for Quartz.

After these two singles with Quartz, First Avenue decided to relaunch Carroll as a solo artist, and was signed to A&M Records by managing director Howard Berman. Carroll interrupted the writing and recording of her album to record "Special Kind of Love", which also reached number 16 in the UK Singles Chart.

The album continued to generate a string of hits, such as "This Time" (No. 23) and "Express" (No. 12). It debuted at No. 2 on the album charts, equalling the position of her debut So Close.

In 2003, Carroll recorded a version of the Randy Crawford song "Almaz".

In 2016, Carroll appeared as a guest vocalist on "We Bring the Party" by the Dig Band, produced by long time collaborator Nigel Lowis.

Carroll made her live comeback in 2016 as the headline act on the "David Gest Is Not Dead but Alive With Soul" tour.

Awards and nominations

1993

British Breakthrough Act

British Female Solo Artist

So Close British Album of the Year "Don't Be a Stranger" British Single of the Year 1997 Herself British Female Solo Artist Discography Albums Year Album UK Certifications 1993 So Close 2 BPI: 4× Platinum 1996 Only Human 2 BPI: Platinum 2001 The Very Best of Dina Carroll 15 BPI: Silver 2005 The Collection ― "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

Singles Year Song Peak chart positions CertificationsUK US 1985"Set It Off" (with Masquerade) 86——"One Nation" (with Masquerade) 8——"Naked Love (Just Say You Want Me)" (Quartz and Dina Carroll)39——1992"Ain't No Man"16——"Special Kind of Love"16——"So Close"20—951993"This Time"23——"Express"1228—"Don't Be a Stranger"36— BPI: Silver "The Perfect Year"54— BPI: Silver 1996"Escaping"314—"Only Human"/"Run to You"33——1998"Livin' for the Weekend"———"One, Two, Three"16——1999"Without Love"13——"It's Only Rock 'n Roll" (various artists charity single)19——2001"Someone Like You"38——2016"We Bring the Party" (with the Dig Band)——— "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.