Carlene Davis

Carlene Davis (born c. 1953) is a Jamaican gospel and reggae singer active since the 1970s. Successful since the early 1980s as a reggae artist, she survived cancer in the mid-1990s, after which she dedicated her career to gospel music. She has released over ten albums.

Biography

Davis was born in Colonels Ridge, Clarendon Parish and moved to England with her parents at the age of fourteen, where she began to perform professionally a year later, playing guitar in an all-female band before joining the pop trio Toreadores. She then moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where she lived for eight years. Davis initially found fame as a reggae singer. She recorded her debut single in Toronto, a version of "Leaving on a Jet Plane", and had a local hit with a version of Jimmy Cliff's "The Harder They Come".

In 1980, she returned to Jamaica to advance her career, and performed at the Reggae Sunsplash festival in 1981. Also in 1981, she finished runner-up in the Festival Song Contest with "Peace and Love". She had hits in Jamaica with "Like Old Friends Do", "It Must Be Love", "Winnie Mandela", "Stealing Love on the Side", "Dial My Number" and "Going Down to Paradise", and released a string...

Read full biography on Wikipedia →