Dina Carroll

Dina Carroll (* 21st August 1968 as Geraldine Carroll in Newmarket , England ) is a British R & B - and pop - singer , the early 1990s with songs like Do not Be a Stranger , The Perfect Year (both 1993) and Escaping (1996) briefly rose to become one of the most successful artists in her homeland.

biography

Carroll's first professional recordings were made in the mid-1980s, with a remake of an old Dionne Warwick song, Walk on By , her first minor success in 1989. Another cover version, a dance version of Carole King's It’s Too Late , came about with the Quartz project - the first top 10 success of her career.

Carroll's first solo hits in the top chart regions followed in 1992: Ain't No Man , Special Kind of Love and So Close . With the latter song she tried to gain a foothold on the American market, an undertaking that failed at number 95 on the charts. In contrast, things went great in her home country: Carroll was named "Singer of the Year" at the BRIT Awards in 1994. Her debut album So Close , released in the previous year, sold over one and a half million copies and was fourth in the British end-of-year evaluation in 1993. Six singles were successfully extracted from the CD, the sixth being the most successful: Don't Be a Stranger , an emotional ballad, climbed to third place in Great Britain. Shortly thereafter, she achieved another top 5 success with The Perfect Year from the musical Sunset Boulevard .

Contractual difficulties hampered Carroll's career in the following years, the follow-up album Only Human was not released until 1996 , which like its predecessor landed at number two in the British charts. The single escaping also made it into the top 3. In the long term, however, Carroll was unable to build on this success. An album release in 1998 was repeatedly postponed and finally completely suspended. With singles like One, Two, Three (1998) or Without Love (1999), the singer stayed in the UK's top 20, but her career gradually silted up. Their last hit dates back to 2001: Someone Like You comes from the album The Very Best of ... and the soundtrack to Bridget Jones - Chocolate for Breakfast .

Difficulties with her management, the loss of her recording contract, and health problems finally sidelined Carroll's career. After another compilation with hits and previously unreleased songs, the singer withdrew into private life.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	UK	US
1993	So close	DE69 (9 weeks) DE	-	UK2 × 4 Quadruple platinum (63 weeks)UK	-
1996	Only human	-	-	UK2 platinum (13 weeks)UK	-
2001	The very best of	-	-	UK15th silver (4 weeks)UK	-	Compilation released in Europe as Someone Like You

More albums

• 1993: Remix Collection
• 2004: The Collection (compilation)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)				Remarks
		DE	AT	UK	US
1991	It's Too Late Perfect Timing	-	AT21 (11 weeks) AT	UK8 (14 weeks) UK	-	Quartz introducing Dina Carroll
	Naked Love (Just Say You Want Me) Perfect Timing	-	AT27 (3 weeks) AT	UK39 (3 weeks) UK	-	Quartz with Dina Carroll
1992	Ain't No Man So Close	DE63 (8 weeks) DE	-	UK16 (8 weeks) UK	-
	Special Kind of Love So Close	DE60 (12 weeks) DE	-	UK16 (5 weeks) UK	-
	So Close So Close	-	-	UK20 (8 weeks) UK	US95 (2 weeks) US
1993	This Time So Close	-	-	UK23 (6 weeks) UK	-
	Express So Close	-	-	UK12 (6 weeks) UK	-
	Don't Be a Stranger So Close	-	-	UK3 silver (13 weeks)UK	-
	The Perfect Year So Close ( Reissue )	-	-	UK5 silver (11 weeks)UK	-
1996	Escaping only human	-	-	UK3 (8 weeks) UK	-
	Only human, only human	-	-	UK33 (3 weeks) UK	-
1997	Only Human / Run to You Only Human	-	-	UK71 (1 week) UK	-
1998	One, two, three Dina Carroll	-	-	UK16 (4 weeks) UK	-
1999	Without Love Dina Carroll	-	-	UK13 (7 weeks) UK	-
2001	Someone Like You The Very Best Of	-	-	UK38 (2 weeks) UK	-

More singles

• 1985: One Nation / Set It Off (Masquerade feat. Dina Carroll)
• 1989: Walk on By
• 1989: Me sienta sola (We Are One)
• 1989: People All Around the World
• 1990: Don't Stop the Music (Simon Harris starring Dina Carroll & Monte Luv)
• 1993: Here
• 1996: Livin 'for the Weekend
• 1997: Run to You
• 1998: Mind Body & Soul
• 1999: Say You Love Me
• 2001: Good to Me

Awards for music sales

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	silver	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
United Kingdom (BPI)	3 × silver3	-	5 × platinum5	1,960,000	bpi.co.uk
All in all	3 × silver3	-	5 × platinum5

swell

1. ↑ Biography , Taurus Press, accessed March 18, 2014
2. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: Singles / Albums
3. ↑ ^{a b} UK gold / platinum database

Web links

• Dina Carroll at Allmusic (English)
• Dina Carroll at Discogs (English)
• Dina Carroll in the Internet Movie Database (English)