About 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" (1991), "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 in 1981, at the age of thirteen, with her rendition of Barbra Streisand's "Woman in Love". After leaving school, she worked in various jobs, including a one-day stint as a chambermaid in a Cambridge hotel in 1985. At the age of sixteen, she was signed to Morgan Khan's London-based record label StreetSounds, primarily a compilations company known for its electro music albums. 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)".
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.