Diana Hamilton

Diana Hamilton - Selected Press Quotes     

Heidi Ellison – Paris Update
"A sweet-voiced singer with a quirky style… Diana Hamilton's album A Bahamian in Paris offers a sampler of musical styles, blending Bahamian percussion, French rap, and echoes of Billie Holiday. Fresh, new, and supported by FIP radio — Hamilton is poised to bring her distinctive sound to a wider audience."

Midi Libre – France
"We wonder how such a voice escaped the radar of music lovers for so long. Diana Hamilton possesses a voice that could melt wax tears… She infuses her performances with calypso, Junkanoo, and broader Afro-Caribbean rhythms, seamlessly merging jazz, reggae, soul, and zydeco influences. At times, she evokes the inconsolable heartbreak of Billie Holiday, the coquettish playfulness of Betty Boop, and the radiant sparkle of Josephine Baker. A rare voice capable of rivaling Madeleine Peyroux or Norah Jones — yet with the added fire of her Bahamian roots. The final third of the concert truly soars… One would happily sail on until dawn, carried by this unforgettable Bahamian ‘Lady Di.’”

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Diana Hamilton - Selected Press Quotes     

Heidi Ellison – Paris Update
"A sweet-voiced singer with a quirky style… Diana Hamilton's album A Bahamian in Paris offers a sampler of musical styles, blending Bahamian percussion, French rap, and echoes of Billie Holiday. Fresh, new, and supported by FIP radio — Hamilton is poised to bring her distinctive sound to a wider audience."

Midi Libre – France
"We wonder how such a voice escaped the radar of music lovers for so long. Diana Hamilton possesses a voice that could melt wax tears… She infuses her performances with calypso, Junkanoo, and broader Afro-Caribbean rhythms, seamlessly merging jazz, reggae, soul, and zydeco influences. At times, she evokes the inconsolable heartbreak of Billie Holiday, the coquettish playfulness of Betty Boop, and the radiant sparkle of Josephine Baker. A rare voice capable of rivaling Madeleine Peyroux or Norah Jones — yet with the added fire of her Bahamian roots. The final third of the concert truly soars… One would happily sail on until dawn, carried by this unforgettable Bahamian ‘Lady Di.’”

Le Progrès / La Tribune – France
"Diana Hamilton’s jazz is anything but conventional… An accordion, piano, bass, and percussion deliver jazz with unmistakable Caribbean accents. The sweetness of the melodies, carried by her smooth, caressing, velvet-like voice — at times youthful — reveal a style entirely her own. Her music blends Afro-Hispanic rhythms, calypso, Junkanoo, Goombay-Rake 'n Scrape, and is a tribute to her ancestors who made music with whatever they could find. At times, her voice becomes warm, generous, velvety — tinged with blues and rock, unexpected, and impossible to categorize… She commands the stage with sensuality and sentiment, visibly joyful to be present."

Télérama Magazine — France                                                                                                          "Behind the clichés of luxury tourism, Diana Hamilton uncovers a rich, resilient Bahamian identity where music, song, and ancestral traditions resist oblivion — a powerful reminder of the islands’ true soul." 

Femmes Créoles — France
"My approach is to revive the memory of my ancestors by carrying their songs back into the hearts of Bahamians — and then sending them out into the world."
"We don’t sing to sound pretty. We sing with our flesh, our energy. That’s very African — being serious and simple at once."
"There’s a people in the Bahamas with deep ties to African history. We are part of that chain, carried away by slavery. Making these songs known is how we preserve them."
"The songs of my country are stripped of artifice. My ancestors invest in me — their energy, their songs pour out. It’s immediate."

Petit Futé — France                                                                                                                                 "A musical journey through blues, Cajun, country, calypso, jazz, and hip-hop — Diana Hamilton fuses Bahamian culture with the global influences she encountered across Europe and Africa."

WOMAD — England
"Charming genre-crossing from the Bahamian chanteuse… Calypso, reggae, lounge jazz, chanson, zydeco, and Junkanoo gently waft out… Her voice, equally charming in English or French, sounds not unlike a Bahamian cross between Ella Fitzgerald and Macy Gray… a refreshingly unpretentious record."

Jean-Pierre Bruneau – Mondomix
"Diana Hamilton effortlessly proves that deep cultural roots are entirely compatible with modernity and openness to the world. Her unique, airy, swinging phrasing — at times reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe — distills calypso, Junkanoo, jazz, reggae, musette, country, and gospel. A true ‘Mondomix,’ polished and elegant, yet never overwhelming."

World Pulse Magazine — USA
"Hamilton grew up in the Bahamas during the 1950s and 60s before it gained its independence. Her own image of the islands differs starkly from the glossy tourist snapshot of island life she is out to amend. Thematically, she sometimes turns to the pain, passion, and protest of social inequity, but the songs retain an overall lightness, confirming that the true motivation for her lively, upbeat tunes is to help ‘shake off the pain.’ The appeal of her style lies in the expert merging of these experiences with the colorful effervescence of Paris’s music scene."

AMINA Magazine 
"Diana Hamilton releases a strikingly fresh and evocative album where the rhythms of her homeland — Junkanoo and Calypso — naturally shine through. With an angelic, contagious voice, she blends island soul and jazz influences, offering an inspired introduction to the culture of the Bahamas."

Pascal Dupont – L'Express Magazine
Music Guide – Artist Profile                                                                                                                Diana Hamilton — 54 years old
For the past two decades, Diana Hamilton has made France her home, where she contributes in her own way to the enrichment of global music culture. Both singer and activist, she accompanies her album with a clear statement of intent: “My country, the Bahamas, is dying under the weight of mass tourism. I want to prevent the sands of oblivion from burying our collective memory.”

Track after track, Hamilton resurrects old plantation folk songs, ancestral slave chants, and laid-back musette-reggae, all delivered with her graceful, delicate voice — accompanied simply by accordion, and followed by a fine offering of gospel and blues.

A Bahamian in Paris is an entirely self-produced, self-promoted album, supported by radio stations such as FIP and NOVA, and sold through outlets like the FNAC and CD Baby.

Dan Behrman – TED Audio Magazine on Babylon Café - Canada
"A Bahamian in Paris? It's anything but trivial, especially when it comes to the charming, inspiring, and very gifted Diana Hamilton who, after nine years of work and interruptions due to this weird but exciting thing called life, has just released her second album, Babylon Café, judiciously produced by DJ Dang…
Babylon Café illustrates a virtual bridge between two generations — that of Dang, a young director-deejay clearly influenced by hip hop and beats, and that of Diana, an old-school singer with a voice evoking a past that is both exciting and a little nostalgic. The interest and success of the album can be summed up in the fact that these two generations merge perfectly to create hybrid music that is both vibrant, interesting, and harmonious."

Erica Wells – The Nassau Guardian 
"Diana Hamilton unexpectedly launched her music career thousands of miles from home, driven by a love for Bahamian folk music discovered in Paris. Now a devoted defender of Rake ’n’ Scrape, Hamilton leads efforts to preserve this endangered tradition, organizing free camps on Cat Island where Bahamian youth learn accordion and connect with ancestral music — before it's lost forever."

Ricardo Wells – The Tribune (Bahamas)
"The music tells us more of who we are than we ever could ourselves." Bahamian musician Diana Hamilton, founder of the Cat Island Accordion & French Project, has devoted her life to preserving Rake ’n’ Scrape, teaching young Bahamians accordion and passing down the ancestral rhythms that define national identity. Through free camps and cultural education, Hamilton ensures this treasured sound — once nearly forgotten — remains alive for the next generation.

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