Biography
Bajan singer-songwriter Amanda Reifer fuses R&B, pop, hip-hop, Caribbean music, and additional styles across her recordings and live shows. Leading Cover Drive, she claimed the top spot on the U.K. singles chart in 2012 with “Twilight,” after which she moved away from the group’s upbeat, anthemic pop toward a varied blend of influences that included smoky R&B on early solo singles such as “Ransom” and “Shitty Day.” The 2022 track “CRAZY” brought a stronger dance focus and drew on African and Caribbean rhythms. Her featured role with Blxst on the Kendrick Lamar single “Die Hard” later that year produced international chart results, among them a Top Five finish on the U.S. Hot 100, and brought two Grammy nominations. She honored her Barbadian origins on the 2024 solo single “Colonize.”
Raised in Barbados, Karen Amanda Reifer first gained worldwide attention fronting the pop quartet Cover Drive with Barry “Bar-Man” Hill on keyboards and guitar, Jamar Hardin on bass, and T-Ray Armstrong on drums and backing vocals. The band launched strongly by supporting Rihanna and entering the U.K. Top Ten with its debut single, August 2011’s “Lick Ya Down.” Twelve months later “Twilight” reached number one in the U.K., and “Sparks” followed into the Top Five. All three tracks appeared on the Polydor debut album Bajan Style, released in May 2022, which climbed to a Top 15 position in the U.K. The group also joined Far East Movement on the Top 20 hit “Turn Up the Love” that year and toured the U.K. and Ireland as support for Kelly Clarkson. Cover Drive resurfaced on the independent Mumstrong Entertainment imprint in 2017; after the follow-up album Fall Forward failed to chart, the band split in 2018.
Reifer began her solo career with the sultry, atmospheric “Girl Like Me” at the end of 2018, then accumulated hundreds of thousands of streams on later releases including 2019’s “Ransom,” 2020’s “Shitty Day,” and the 2022 dance-pop single “CRAZY,” which incorporated African and Caribbean rhythms. In August she joined rapper-producer Blxst on Kendrick Lamar’s “Die Hard,” a track that reached the Top Five in both the U.S. and Canada, peaked at number seven in the U.K., and earned Reifer Grammy nominations for Best Melodic Rap Performance and Album of the Year for Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Returning to solo work after signing with Atlantic, she explored dance rhythms and atmospheric textures on 2024 releases such as “In and Out (Interlude),” “Devastating (Interlude),” and the Dahi-produced “Colonize,” issued that June.
Raised in Barbados, Karen Amanda Reifer first gained worldwide attention fronting the pop quartet Cover Drive with Barry “Bar-Man” Hill on keyboards and guitar, Jamar Hardin on bass, and T-Ray Armstrong on drums and backing vocals. The band launched strongly by supporting Rihanna and entering the U.K. Top Ten with its debut single, August 2011’s “Lick Ya Down.” Twelve months later “Twilight” reached number one in the U.K., and “Sparks” followed into the Top Five. All three tracks appeared on the Polydor debut album Bajan Style, released in May 2022, which climbed to a Top 15 position in the U.K. The group also joined Far East Movement on the Top 20 hit “Turn Up the Love” that year and toured the U.K. and Ireland as support for Kelly Clarkson. Cover Drive resurfaced on the independent Mumstrong Entertainment imprint in 2017; after the follow-up album Fall Forward failed to chart, the band split in 2018.
Reifer began her solo career with the sultry, atmospheric “Girl Like Me” at the end of 2018, then accumulated hundreds of thousands of streams on later releases including 2019’s “Ransom,” 2020’s “Shitty Day,” and the 2022 dance-pop single “CRAZY,” which incorporated African and Caribbean rhythms. In August she joined rapper-producer Blxst on Kendrick Lamar’s “Die Hard,” a track that reached the Top Five in both the U.S. and Canada, peaked at number seven in the U.K., and earned Reifer Grammy nominations for Best Melodic Rap Performance and Album of the Year for Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers. Returning to solo work after signing with Atlantic, she explored dance rhythms and atmospheric textures on 2024 releases such as “In and Out (Interlude),” “Devastating (Interlude),” and the Dahi-produced “Colonize,” issued that June.
Albums
Singles
