page_title: Suzanne Vega
section_title: 2010s
hierarchical_section_title: Suzanne Vega / Career / 2010s
caption_attribution_description: English: Suzanne Vega at Union Chapel, London June 18th 2015. Improvising by using the pulpit.
context_page_description: Suzanne Nadine Vega is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer, best known for her folk-inspired music.
  Vega's music career spans more than 30 years. She came to prominence in the mid 1980s, releasing four singles that entered the Top 40 charts in the UK during the 1980s and 1990s, including "Marlene on the Wall", "Left of Center", "Luka" and "No Cheap Thrill". "Tom's Diner," which was originally released as an a cappella recording on Vega's second album, Solitude Standing, was remixed in 1990 as a dance track by English electronic duo DNA with Vega as featured artist, and it became a Top 10 hit in over five countries. The song was used as a test during the creation of the MP3 format. The critical role of her song in the development of the MP3 compression prompted Vega to be given the title of "The Mother of the MP3".
  Vega has released nine studio albums to date, the latest of which is Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers, released in 2016.
context_section_description: A partial cover version of her song Tom's Diner was used to introduce the 2010 British movie 4.3.2.1, with its lyrics largely rewritten to echo the plot. This musical hybrid was released as "Keep Moving". Vega participated in the Danger Mouse/Sparklehorse/David Lynch collaboration Dark Night of the Soul. She wrote both melody and lyrics for her song, which is titled "The Man Who Played God", inspired by a biography of Pablo Picasso. Vega sang lead vocals on the song "Now I Am an Arsonist" with singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton on his 2011 album, Artificial Heart.
  Vega has re-recorded her back-catalogue, both for artistic and commercial (and control) reasons, in the Close-up series. Vol. 1 (Love Songs) and Vol. 2 (People & Places) appeared in 2010 while Vol. 3 (States of Being) was released in July 2011 followed by Vol. 4 (Songs of Family) in September 2012.  Volumes 2, 3 and 4 of the Close-Up albums included previously unrecorded material; Volumes 2 and 3 each included one new collaboratively written song, while Volume 4 included three songs that Vega had written years earlier, but had not previously gotten around to recording. In all, Vega's Close-Up series features 60 re-recorded songs and five new compositions, representing about three-quarters of her lifetime songwriting output.
  While performing live, Vega and long-term collaborator Gerry Leonard began to introduce a number of new songs into the setlist, including the live favorite "I Never Wear White". Over the course of a year, the songs were completed and recorded in a live-studio setting with the help of a number of guests. Produced by Leonard, Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles was released in February 2014. It was her first album of new material in seven years and became Vega's first studio album to reach the UK Top 40 since 1992, peaking at No. 37.
  New album Lover, Beloved: Songs from an Evening with Carson McCullers was released on October 14, 2016.
  On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Suzanne Vega among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
caption: Vega at Union Chapel, London, 2015, improvising by using the pulpit
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