sandra cross

With a track record of five No.1 singles and 10 top 10 selling albums, eight UK Reggae Music and Entertainment Awards winner Cross is only getting started. The singer returns just as fierce and compelling on her 11th studio album, entitled “Just As I am …” ,soon to be released on North West London’s reggae label, Stingray Records. The album projects an amazing performance from the stunning and talented singer/songwriter diva of Reggae.
“I Surrender All’ — the opening track, takes us back to her childhood days, attending the local Pentecostal church in her home town of Brixton, South London, with her parents and 7 brothers.

‘As a young girl I sat in the pews of our local church”, she recalls,” On hearing this beautiful chorus being sung, I remember always experiencing a feeling of humbleness, reverence and respect. A feeling that always brought me to a place of acceptance and gratitude to my parents, Gloria Veronica (RIP) and my father Lester Joseph, for the first introduction to God and his holy reverence. Without this introduction the mast that helped to balance my ship through life’s tormented waters would not have existed…
Indeed Cross has earned herself thousands of devoted fans thanks to her positive and life-related lyrics. Her past hits such as “Country Living” “You’re Lying,” “Put It On,” “It’s You,” and “ I Adore You” are bold empowerment anthems, which are well known and loved by her fans all over the world.
The vibrant, musically diverse album ‘Just As I Am’ was influenced by her years spent on the Caribbean island of Barbados, and her return to the UK. It will mesmerize those who are graciously moved by her resilience and remarkable yet unbeknown to her, emotional strength she maintained in her life journey. The album is filled with self-penned tracks such as “Life Is A Mystery,” “24,” and “Laptops and Facbook,” as well as “Losing You” , a serious examination of the recent rapid spread of Gun and Knife crime in the UK.
‘One offence involving a knife is committed every 24 minutes of the day. There were 5,500 serious crimes involving knives in a period of just three months….’.(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/knife-crime-every-24-minutes-398149.html)
“How many more mothers will shed their tears?” she laments, “ How many more young bodies laying in the cemeteries…so cold…….The heartache and disbelief of losing the one you love, the pain of having to move on….How do we release the minds of our youths from negative mental bondage?”……….
“Race For Life,
In 2003, days before my mother died of a blocked artery to her heart, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She had no idea that she had this disease. We just could not understand how such a killer disease was able to lay dormant for so many years with no symptoms.
After watching the UK 2011’s Race For Life Cancer Campaign, I felt a strong need to support this cause. I wrote this song for all those who have and are suffering with this terrible disease today, as well as a special tribute to my mom…. I truly believe that a cure will be found one day…..I hold my hand to my heart and everyday, continue to keep up the faith….

Cross may not have known how her early life would shape her artistry, and really did not understand the emotional power of music at such a young age.
Born amongst seven boys to Jamaican parents, and raised in London, England, she was introduced to music from the young age of 5 as her father taught her to play the piano. Her talent for singing was then recognized and respected on a broader scale when she was chosen as lead vocalist for the church choir.
She came of age during the original outbreak of the UK’s reggae movement during the early eighties. After spells of sneaking out at nights squeezing into the back of sound system vans, just so that she could sing on their sets in the local dances, her hunger for the music industry seemed to reel out of control.
During her days at high school she would replace l