Globe-trotting Grandma: While Marcia toured, Deni Hines' gran made sure there was oxtail soup on the table

Singer Deni Hines introduces you to her grandmother, Esmerelda McPherson, sharing the story of how Esme moved from Jamaica to the US and eventually to Australia, to raise two generations of Hines women at once.

Singer Deni Hines shares memories of her grandmother, Esme.

It's almost dawn on Saturday morning when a teenage Deni Hines trudges home after a long night of dancing in Sydney’s most famous clubs. It’s a walk she’s familiar with, this is her weekly routine. But as she climbs up to the second-floor kitchen window, her heart drops. It’s bolted shut.

Deni’s grandmother Esme would let her get away with just about anything as a youngster. But Deni’s mother, Australia’s queen of pop Marcia Hines, wasn’t so lax. When she found Deni’s bed empty on this particular night, she took a piece of plywood and nailed the kitchen window shut from inside. Deni was left to reflect on her choices from the garden.

16-year-old Marcia's career was just taking off in Australia when she realised she was pregnant with her daughter, Deni. She knew she'd need help raising the baby, but Marcia was a world away from her mother Esme in Boston. So baby Deni spent some time in Boston and in Esme’s native Jamaica, before they eventually moved to Australia.

Deni, Esme and Marcia at home one Christmas

Decades later, Deni has also seen enormous success on the international stage as a singer - fronting indie pop group Rockmelons before carving out a solo career.

Comedian Lizzy Hoo talks to Deni about growing up with three generations of Hines women under one roof, Esme's famous goat curry and jerk chicken, and how she and Esme developed their own way of life around Marcia’s hectic touring schedule.

Gran was the best. She would sit and talk to anybody. If you had a problem, she would sit there and work it out with you... she would just be that voice of reason. But she did not suffer fools. She used to go to grocery stores and argue with them about the prices.

Deni Hines

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Globe-trotting Grandma: While Marcia toured, Deni Hines' gran made sure there was oxtail soup on the table

SBS Audio

18/07/202431:29

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Grand Gestures is a Deadset Studios production for SBS Audio.

Host: Lizzy Hoo

Guest: Deni Hines

Executive Producer: Kellie Riordan

Supervising Producer: Grace Pashley

Producer: Liam Riordan and Luci McAfee

Audio editor and sound designer: Jeremy Wilmot

SBS Audio: Caroline Gates, Joel Supple, and Max Gosford

Artwork by Universal Favourite

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the land on which this show was made.