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).
At the age of sixteen, she was signed to Morgan Khan's[4] London-based record label StreetSounds,[3] primarily a compilations company known for its electro music albums.
[7] After six unproductive months, she left StreetSounds/StreetWave, with Khan going on to use the Masquerade name again for the number 64 hit "(Solution to) The Problem"[8] and a megamix called the "Streetsounds Real Thing Mix".
Other solo releases during that era included "People All Around the World" and "Me Sienta Sola (We Are One)", the latter being an underground club hit in the New York scene.
[15] After these two singles with Quartz, First Avenue decided to relaunch Carroll as a solo artist, and was signed to A&M Records by managing director Howard Berman.
[3] Carroll's first solo single (produced and co-written by Nigel Lowis) "Ain't No Man" was released in June 1992,[3] reaching number 16 in the chart.
[9] To capitalise on the momentum of "Ain't No Man", Carroll and Lowis worked on future singles together, one of which being the top 20 hit "So Close", which was released in December 1992; coincidentally the title of her debut album.
Carroll was approached by Robert Clivillés and David Cole of C&C Music Factory who invited her to New York to become the first British artist to work with them.
To round off a highly successful 1993, Carroll recorded her version of "The Perfect Year" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Sunset Boulevard" and released it in December 1993.
5,[9] and Carroll was to become the only British female to have two singles simultaneously in the top 10 that decade, with "Don't Be a Stranger" still holding high when "The Perfect Year" entered the charts.
[9] The B-side track, "Mind Body & Soul" on the other hand, topped the club chart, re-establishing Dina's dominance in the dance genre.
Overall, Carroll considered the making of the second album a very dispiriting experience, and often described Only Human as a "lost baby", despite it selling 500,000 copies and achieving Platinum status.
For this, she went to Los Angeles to work with producer Rhett Lawrence, most famous for his production of Mariah Carey's début album.
[9] The new album, Dina Carroll, was originally planned for release at the end of 1998, including her cover of the Dusty Springfield song, "Son of a Preacher Man".
The single continued her uninterrupted string of Dance Chart-toppers, and re-established her place in the UK music scene when released in July 1999, reaching No.
Part of promotion saw Carroll performing the track live on Dale Winton's Saturday night Lottery Show.
In 2000, First Avenue Management entered into a crisis phase when most of their artists were dropped by their labels, e.g. Eternal, Louise, Dana Dawson, Kele Le Roc, Honeyz, Kéllé Bryan, Michelle Gayle, etc.
In 2016, Carroll appeared as a guest vocalist on "We Bring the Party" by the Dig Band, produced by long time collaborator Nigel Lowis.
Carroll made her live comeback in 2016 as the headline act on the "David Gest Is Not Dead but Alive With Soul" tour.