Deni Hines

Deni Hines Biography

Dohnyale "Deni" Sharon Hines (born September 4, 1970 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian R&B singer, and is the daughter of singer Marcia Hines.

Hines released her first single with the Australian band Rockmelons with the a cover version of the Bill Withers 1971 hit "Ain't No Sunshine". She then went to release solo material with the top ten single "It's Alright" and the top twenty album Imagination (1996) which clocked in sales over 2.5 million copies worldwide. Her latest album is titled Water for Chocolate which was released on August 19, 2006 and features the singles "Water for Chocolate", "Son of a Preacher Man" and "5 Days of Rain".

Deni Hines grew up in Australia and was inspired by her mother's success as a singer to follow a career in show business. She was discovered by a friend when she was singing to the radio and then was encouraged to pursue singing as a career. Her earliest employment was as a backing vocalist for such artists as Kylie Minogue (her Rhythm of Love Tour, Australia and Far East 1991), Jimmy Barnes, Wa Wa Nee and Peter Blakeley before she was approached by the band Rockmelons to provide vocals for several of their songs. The first song that Hines released with the Rockmelons collaboration was a cover version of the Bill Withers 70's hit "Ain't No Sunshine" in 1991. The song proved to be a success charting at number five on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart. With the success of the first single, the reggae-inspired "That Word (L.O.V.E.)" was the second song released with the collaboration and became another top five single, charting at number four in Australia. The third and final song Hines released with the band was the ballad "It's Not Over". The song was also a success but was not as big as the previous two, charting at number fifteen in Australia. With the success with the Rockmelons, Hines became one of the most well known faces, and voices, in Australia.

After three hit singles with the Rockmelons, Hines was signed to Mushroom Records and released her first solo single "It's Alright" in 1995. It was a contemporary dance track that contrasted sharply with her earlier Rockmelons performances, and it became one of the year's biggest hits in Australia charting at number four on the Australian ARIA Singles Charts and winning an ARIA Award award for "Breakthrough Artist - Single". "Imagination", the second song released solo by Hines was released at the beginning of 1996 and was not as successful as "It's Alright" only peaking at number thirty-seven. With two songs released from the album, Hines released her debut album Imagination on May 25, 1996 and became a hit, charting at number fifteen on the Australia ARIA Albums Chart and was nominated for two ARIA Awards; "Breakthrough Artist - Album" and "Best Female Artist". "I Like the Way" and "I'm Not in Love" (a cover version of a 10cc' song) were the album's third and fourth singles but both failed to chart in to top fifty in Australia. Even though "I'm Not in Love" failed to make an impact on the charts, it nominated Hines for two ARIA Awards for "Best Pop Release" and "Best Female Artist". Imagination was also released in Japan on July 24, 1996 and had sales of 300,000 copies, making the total sales of 2.5 million worldwide.

In order to properly promote her album properly, Hines moved to the UK in 1997 and re-issued her album under the title Pay Attention and toured withLighthouse Family and Earth, Wind & Fire. "It's Alright" was released in the United Kingdom in 1997 and was received well peaking at number thirty-five on the singles chart. The track also managed to peak at number twenty-two in France. Further hits such as "I Like the Way", "Joy" and "Delicious" followed, however, her career quickly lost its impetus after her album Pay Attention failed to impact the charts. In 1998, Hines cracked the U.S. market on the dance charts with "Joy" and "I Like the Way" both peaking in the top twenty of the U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play charts. Hines released an album of remixed songs from her Imagination and Pay Attention albums on July 14, 1998, titled Remix Your Imagination. This album failed to break into any charts around the world but the song "Dream Your Dream" from the album managed to chart in Japan.

In 2000, Hines did a cover version of the Grace Jones song "Pull Up to the Bumper" for the soundtrack for 2000 Australian film The Wog Boy. 2002 saw Hines released a "Greatest Hits" album ("A Delicious Collection") based on contractual commitments with her then record company Festival Mushroom. In 2003 she spent time in France working with Hip Hop artist I:AM writing and recording for his album in addition to co-writing a track "Welcome" of which Beyonce Knowles vocalled for I:AM's release.