THE self-professed Queen of Dancehall Soul, Cherine has much to celebrate in 2012.

She launched her new band, Rockfort Rebels, dropped her last name to cement her image, and was even named Best Dressed Female Artiste two weeks ago by TEENage Observer.

Describing her musical style as "where the street meets the sweet" Cherine sat with TEENage for a Flexx and we had to Press Record.

Growing up in the innercity, Cherine said that she has had the blessing of travelling the world.

"In 2011, after having the blessing of touring the world with Michael Franti, Spearhead, John Mayer, Counting Crows, and Sly & Robbie, I just wanted to do more, expand what I do. I wanted to do music that I can dance to and enjoy being young. Ironically, when I travel the biggest song was Say Hey with Michael Franti and his audiences got used to an energetic Cherine and when I return to Jamaica it is a whole different thing. It was almost like living two different lives. I wanted to pursue dancehall much more, but bring the soul from the slower songs."

Cherine attended first to fifth form at Wolmer's Girls' School, sixth form at The Queen's School, migrated to the US for tertiary education at Middlebury College in Vermont, and even spent a year abroad at Kao University in Tokyo, Japan.

But her career started quite a long time ago.

"Professionally, I've been in business six years, and that's when I came out in 2006. Everything prior to that is what people just call aspiring. In some countries, people would call me a child star, because I did my first movie at 13 — the cult-classic Dancehall Queen — but I was still a full-time student. Then, I did One Love with Kymani Marley, but at the time I was a full-time college student. I wouldn't then call myself a professional singer, because the focus was on getting my degree and travelling. I had the blessing of writing for that film, which was a nice little step in, but it wasn't Cherine, the singer."

Check out our exclusive video with Cherine, see when she says her career began, how school has helped her in her career, and what she has to say to her critics. She also shows us the other side of Cherine in our interview on the Jamaica Observer website, or on YouTube.com/TEENageObserver.