Alison Amanda Hinds is a British born female soca artist based in the Caribbean island of Barbados.
Background
Alison Hinds was born in London on 1 June 1970 and grew up in Plaistow. Both of her parents were from the island of Barbados, her father a worker at Ford"s Dagenham plant. When she was aged 11 her parents split up and she migrated to Barbados with her mother.
Career
She is one of the most popular soca singers in the world and has been given the nickname the "Queen of Soca". She competed in the Richard Stoute teen talent contest in 1987, finishing third. She is known as the "Queen of Soca".
After returning to music with a vocal contribution to a remix of Kevin Lyttle"s "Turn Maine On", she returned to the soca scene with the hit song "Roll lieutenant Gal," which praises women"s independence in lyrics about female empowerment.
The song was a huge hit throughout the Caribbean, and was released in the United Kingdom in 2007 to coincide with the release of her début album. She also recorded a collaboration with Machel Montano for the remix of "Roll lieutenant Gal".
Hinds" debut solo album Soca Queen was released in October 2007. Her latest album Caribbean Queen was released in 2010 and contains collaborations with Shaggy, Richie Spice, and Jah Cure, with whom she collaborated on the single "Team Up" in 2009.
She continues to tour worldwide and has performed at many of the West Indian Carnivals and festivals including Sumfest, and the West Indian American Carnival in Brooklyn.
On 11 November 2011 was one of many Barbadian entertainers shown on the Where in the World is Matt Lauer? segment on National Broadcasting Company.
Membership
She has her own band, "The Alison Hinds Show", formed in 2005, with Hinds the main singer and most of the other members of the band young dancers and musicians.