Sarah McLachlan
Sarah Ann McLachlan (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is "Surfacing", for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and four Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased women musicians. Early and personal life. McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was placed with the McLachlan family, which later legally adopted her. As a child, she was a  member of Girl Guides of Canada, participating in Guiding programs. She played music from a very young age, beginning with the ukulele when she was four. She studied classical guitar, classical piano, and voice at the Maritime Conservatory of Music through the curriculum of The Royal Conservatory of Music. At 17, while she was still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, in Halifax, she fronted a short-lived rock band called The October Game. One of the band's songs, "Grind", credited as a group composition, can be found on the independent Flamingo Records release "Out of the Fog  and the CD Out of the Fog Too". It has yet to be released elsewhere. Following The October Game's first concert at Dalhousie University opening for Moev, McLachlan was offered a recording contract with Vancouver-based independent record label Nettwerk by Moev's Mark Jowett. McLachlan's parents insisted that she finish high school and complete one year of studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before moving to Vancouver and embarking on a new life as a recording artist. She finally signed to Nettwerk two years later before having written a single song. When she  was 19, a mutual acquaintance introduced her to her birth mother. McLachlan did not seek her out and was ambivalent about meeting her. In 1994, McLachlan was sued by Uwe Vandrei, an obsessed fan from Ottawa, who alleged that his letters to her had been the basis of the single "Possession". The lawsuit was also challenging for the Canadian legal system since Vandrei was an admitted stalker whose acknowledged goal in filing the lawsuit was to be near McLachlan. Consequently, precautions were taken to ensure McLachlan's safety if she had to be in the same location as Vandrei. Before  the trial began, however, Vandrei was found dead in an apparent suicide. Vandrei's preoccupation with McLachlan was explored at length in Canadian author Judith Fitzgerald's book, "Building a Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan & Lilith Fair". In 1997, McLachlan married her drummer, Ashwin Sood, in Jamaica. While she was pregnant with her first child, her mother died from cancer in December 2001. While working on her next album, "Afterglow", she gave birth to a daughter in Vancouver on April 6, 2002. On June 22, 2007, she gave birth to her second daughter, also in Vancouver. McLachlan announced her  separation from Sood in September 2008 and they divorced the same year. Career and albums. 1987–92: "Touch" and "Solace". The signing with Nettwerk prompted McLachlan to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded her first album, "Touch", in 1987, which received both critical and commercial success and included the song "Vox". During this period she also contributed to an album by Moev, provided vocals on Manufacture's "As the End Draws Near", and embarked on her first national concert tour as an opening act for The Grapes of Wrath. Her 1991 album, "Solace", was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada , spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". "Solace" also marked the beginning of her partnership with Pierre Marchand. Marchand and McLachlan have been collaborators ever since, with Marchand producing many of McLachlan's albums and occasionally co-writing songs. 1993–2000: "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy", "Surfacing", and "Mirrorball". 1993's "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" was an immediate hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first "Due South" in 1996. Over the next two years, "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the  charts in a number of countries. Following the success from "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy", McLachlan returned in 1997 with "Surfacing", her best-selling album to date. The album earned her two 1998 Grammy Awards, one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Building a Mystery") and one for Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for "Last Dance"), and four Juno Awards, including Album of the Year for "Surfacing" and Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "Building a Mystery". Reaching number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and number two on the US "Billboard" 200, the album  has since sold over 16 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. Her song "Angel"—inspired by the fatal overdose of Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin—made sales skyrocket. One of the songs from "Surfacing," "Full of Grace," features in the Season 2 finale of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Becoming (Part II)". Fellow adoptee Darryl McDaniels was so touched by "Angel" that it inspired him to reassess his life and career. He credits McLachlan and her album, "Surfacing", (on which "Angel" appeared) with  saving his life. They collaborated on many projects in support of Adoptee Rights. In 1999, McLachlan released a live album, "Mirrorball". The album's singles included a new live version of her earlier song, "I Will Remember You", a studio recording of which had previously been released on "The Brothers McMullen" soundtrack as well as "Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff". The song was released as a single twice, once in 1995 where it peaked No. 65 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 and No. 10 in Canada, and again in 1999 at No. 14 on the US "Billboard" Hot  100 and No. 10 in Canada. The 1999 version garnered McLachlan her third Grammy Awards for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "I Will Remember You") in 2000. In 1998, the motion picture "City of Angels" featured "Angel". The reached number one on the "Billboard" chart. More than five months after the film disappeared from the theatres, the soundtrack remained firmly entrenched among "Billboard"s top 40 albums and earned quadruple-platinum status. In 1999, McLachlan recorded the Randy Newman song "When She Loved Me" on the "Toy Story 2" soundtrack. This song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best  Original Song in 2000, and McLachlan performed it at the awards ceremony, but she didn't win. 2003–05: "Afterglow". McLachlan returned to public life and touring with her 2003 album release, "Afterglow", which contained the singles "Fallen", "Stupid", and "World On Fire". Rather than shoot a conventional music video for "World On Fire", McLachlan donated all but $15 of the $150,000 budget to various charitable causes around the world and then used the video to explain how it benefited the communities that received the money. Like "Surfacing", the album reached number one in Canada and number two in  the United States. Another live album, "Afterglow Live", was released in late 2004. The CD consisted of several tracks from a full-length concert, which was included in its entirety on a DVD, as well as the three music videos from "Afterglow". In 2004, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, who credits McLachlan and her music for lifting him from a period of depression, as he described publicly on NPR Moth Radio Hour "Angel" dated September 9, 2014, invited her to join him on a track from his solo album. Although the album was not released until early 2006, remixes of the song  Just Like Me were included on a number of compilations in 2005. 2006: "Wintersong". In October 2006, McLachlan released a Christmas album, "Wintersong". The album included 11 new recordings, featuring covers of Joni Mitchell's "River", Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night", and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", which she recorded with her outreach children and youth choir, and seasonal favourites: "Christmas Time Is Here", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Silent Night", "The First Noel", and "Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)", among others. The title track is an  original work of McLachlan's. "Wintersong" debuted at No. 42 on the "Billboard" 200 album chart the week ending November 4, 2006. It peaked at No. 7. Worldwide the album has sold over 1.1 million copies to date. It has been certified Platinum in the U.S. and 2× Platinum in Canada, where it became her third consecutive album to reach number one. "Wintersong" was nominated for both a Grammy Award, in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, as well as for a Juno Award, for "Pop Album of the Year". On October 3, 2006, the live album "Mirrorball" was  re-released as "Mirrorball: The Complete Concert". This release contains two discs that were compiled from two concerts performed on consecutive nights in April 1998 at the Rose Garden arena in Portland, Oregon. 2008–2010: "Rarities Vol 2", greatest-hits compilation and "Laws of Illusion". On April 29, 2008, "Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2" was released. The track list includes McLachlan's recent covers of Joni Mitchell's "River" and Dave Stewart's "Ordinary Miracle", as well as collaborations throughout her career with the Perishers, Cyndi Lauper and Bryan Adams, among others. On August 5, 2008, the 15th  anniversary three-disc edition of "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy" was released. The set includes the original re-mastered album, "The Freedom Sessions" and a DVD that includes live performances, music videos and more. The album was released by Legacy Recordings. McLachlan released a greatest hits album, "", on October 7, 2008. On August 12, 2008, she released a new song from the album, "U Want Me 2", a mid-tempo contemplative love song, as a digital single in the iTunes Store; also accompanied with a video performance. McLachlan also admitted the song was inspired by the dissolution of her marriage, which she  announced in September 2008, during initial promotion. "Don't Give Up on Us", the other new song on the album, was released as the second and final single on February 3, 2009. Both singles were subsequently included on her next album, "Laws of Illusion". A single, "One Dream", was released on September 29, 2009, and was the official theme song of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. McLachlan's first studio album of original material in nearly seven years, "Laws of Illusion", was released on June 15, 2010. New York Times music critic John Pareles says about "Laws of Illusion  – It's a kindly, enveloping sound that Ms. McLachlan has long used to conjure passion and empathy laced with melancholy. But now it encompasses a new anguish, deeper and sharper than what she hinted at with "Afterglow" in 2003." It features 10 new songs in addition to the previously released tracks "U Want Me 2" and "Don't Give Up on Us", as well as various bonus tracks. Previews of the tracks and bonus materials were made available in the iTunes Store and on Amazon.com for listening and viewing on May 26, 2010. Lilith Fair kicked off in Calgary, AB  on June 27, 2010. In anticipation of the album and the tour, McLachlan appeared on the WNYC-produced radio show "Soundcheck". During the wide-ranging interview, McLachlan discussed with host John Schaefer the last eleven years of her life and how she has changed, especially as a working mother of two. 2014–2015: "Shine On". In late January 2014, McLachlan announced the release of her next studio album, "Shine On", which was inspired by the death of her father. It was her first release on Verve Records, after leaving Nettwerk/Arista after over twenty years. The album was released on May  6, 2014. In March 2014 McLachlan announced a schedule for a Shine On tour across the United States, which began in Seattle on June 20, 2014. The tour visited 30 cities all together. The Canadian leg of the tour was to include 25 shows in 21 cities. On May 14, 2014, it was announced that "Shine On" debuted at No. 4 on the US "Billboard" charts, with 42,000 copies. In March 2015, McLachlan won a Juno for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year for "Shine On". 2016–present: "Wonderland". On October 21, 2016, McLachlan released "Wonderland", her ninth studio album  and second Christmas album. Wonderland contains interpretations of 13 traditional and contemporary holiday classics. McLachlan performed at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24 as well as NBC's annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center special on November 30. She also performed on ABC's CMA Country Christmas Special on November 28, "Live with Kelly!" on December 8 and "Harry TV" on December 16. McLachlan released the single "The Long Goodbye" in December 2018. In January 2019, McLachlan was announced as the host of the Juno Awards of 2019. In a February 2019 interview, McLachlan stated that she was  set to debut a new song titled "Wilderness" during her then-current tour. Lilith Fair. In 1996, McLachlan became frustrated with concert promoters and radio stations that refused to feature two female musicians in a row. Bucking conventional industry wisdom, she booked a successful tour for herself and Paula Cole. At least one of their appearances together – in McLachlan's home town, on September 14, 1996 – went by the name "Lilith Fair" and included performances by McLachlan, Cole, Lisa Loeb and Michelle McAdorey, formerly of Crash Vegas. The next year, McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour, taking "Lilith" from the  medieval Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife. In 1997, Lilith Fair, featuring McLachlan as one of the headlining acts, garnered a $16 million gross, making it the top-grossing of any touring festival. Among all concert tours for that year, it was the 16th highest grossing. Lilith Fair tour brought together 2 million people over its three-year history and raised more than $7 million for charities. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history, one of the biggest music festivals of the 1990s, and helped launch the careers of several well -known female artists. Subsequent Lilith Fairs followed in 1998 and 1999 before the tour was discontinued. Nettwerk CEO and Lilith Fair co-founder Terry McBride announced that the all-female festival would make its return in mid-2010 in Canada, the United States, and Europe. A list of 36 North American shows was released. But poor ticket sales, financial problems, and headliners' withdrawing out of fear of not being paid caused 13 of the shows to be cancelled. The two-week European tour never materialized. Additional projects and guest appearances. In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the  Delerium song "Silence" for their album "Karma". This song achieved a massive amount of US top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000 and also featured on the soundtrack for the movie "Brokedown Palace". It has been hailed as one of the greatest trance songs of all time, over a decade after its initial release. The Tiësto remix of the song was voted by "Mixmag" readers as the 12th greatest dance record of all time. In 2001, McLachlan provided background vocals, guitar, and piano on the closing track "Love Is" from Stevie Nicks' eighth solo album, "Trouble  in Shangri-La", in addition to drawing the dragon used for the "S" in Stevie's name on the album cover. In May 2002, her duet with Bryan Adams was released on the "" soundtrack. She sang harmonies and played the piano on the song "Don't Let Go" while Sood did the drum work. In November 2006, McLachlan performed the song "Ordinary Miracle" for that year's feature film, "Charlotte's Web". There were rumors of a potential Oscar nomination for the song, but the song was not nominated. She performed the song on "The Oprah Winfrey Show", during the  Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics. In early 2007, she sang on Dave Stewart's "Go Green", alongside Nadirah X, Imogen Heap, Natalie Imbruglia, and others. In 2009, she did backing vocals on Susan Enan's song "Bring on the Wonder" which was featured in the television show "Bones". It was subsequently featured on both Enan's ("Plainsong") and McLachlan's ("Laws of Illusion") albums. On September 10, 2011, McLachlan performed "I Will Remember You" and "Angel" at a ceremony in Stonycreek, Pennsylvania, commemorating the passengers and crew of hijacked United  Airlines Flight 93 who fought the hijackers and brought down their airplane on September 11, 2001. The event marked the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial and was attended by former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker John Boehner. On June 13, 2019, McLachlan sang "O Canada" before Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals. Awards and achievements. McLachlan has been nominated for 26 Juno Awards and has won nine. In 1992, her video for "Into the Fire" was selected as best music video. In 1998 , she won Female Vocalist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year (along with Pierre Marchand), Single of the Year for "Building a Mystery", and Album of the Year for "Surfacing". In 2000, she won an International Achievement award and in 2004, won Pop Album of the Year for "Afterglow" and again shared the Songwriter of the Year award with Pierre Marchand for the singles "Fallen", "World on Fire", and "Stupid". McLachlan has also won three Grammy Awards. She was awarded Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1997 for "Building a Mystery" and again in 1999 for the live version of  I Will Remember You. She also scored Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 1997 for "Last Dance". McLachlan's song "Building a Mystery" came in at 91 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s. McLachlan was awarded the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award in 1998 for advancing the careers of women in music. In 1999, she was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada by then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in recognition of her successful recording career, her role in Lilith Fair, and the charitable donations she made to women's shelters across Canada. In 2001, she  was inducted to the Order of British Columbia. On June 15, 2011, she was recognized with an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University. Kiwanis International presented McLachlan with the 2013 Kiwanis International World Service Medal to recognize her for founding the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, a free music school for at-risk youth in Vancouver, British Columbia. On November 20, 2013, McLachlan was recognized with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Alberta. In 2012, McLachlan was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame. In May 2015, she received a Governor General's Performing Arts Award  for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts. On April 2, 2017, at the Juno Awards ceremony, McLachlan was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Philanthropy. Sarah McLachlan School of Music. McLachlan also funds an outreach program in Vancouver that provides music education for inner city children. In 2007, the provincial government announced $500,000 in funding for the outreach program. Originating at the "Sarah McLachlan Music Outreach", this program evolved into the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. This program provided children with high quality music instruction in guitar, piano, percussion and choir. In  2011 McLachlan opened the Sarah McLachlan School of Music in Vancouver, a free music school for at-risk youth. The School of Music provides group and private lessons to hundreds of young people every year. It is their goal that through music education, students will develop a love of the arts and have greater self-esteem. On May 25, 2016, the Sarah McLachlan School of Music expanded to Edmonton, Alberta, opening in Rundle Elementary School and Eastglen High School. The music school contains the same initiative as the Vancouver school. ASPCA. McLachlan supports the ASPCA by appearing in advertisements. She  filmed a two-minute advertisement for the organization which featured her song "Angel". The advertisement's imagery of shelter animals mixed with the soundtrack and McLachlan's simple appeal for donations has raised $30 million for the ASPCA since it began to air in 2006, which allowed the organization to air appeals in higher profile prime-time cable ad slots; subsequently the organization produced a new ad for the 2008 holiday season featuring McLachlan appealing for the ASPCA over her "Wintersong" performance of "Silent Night", and a new ad with her was released in January 2009 featuring the song  Answer. In 2012, McLachlan wrote a letter on behalf of PETA to then-Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, protesting that country's annual seal hunt. During Super Bowl XLVIII on February 3, 2014, McLachlan parodied her ASPCA appeals in an Audi commercial featuring a "Doberhuahua" dog gnawing on the neck of her guitar. Other charitable contributions. McLachlan contributed the track "Hold On" to the 1993 AIDS-benefit album "No Alternative", produced by the Red Hot Organization. She also performed at the Leonard Peltier Defense Fund Benefit Concert on February 12, 1997, and went on to release a cover version of  Unchained Melody created as part of her support for Peltier. It was later included on the album "Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2". In early 2005, McLachlan took part in a star-studded tsunami disaster relief telethon on NBC. On January 29 McLachlan was a headliner for a benefit concert in Vancouver along with other Canadian superstars such as Avril Lavigne and Bryan Adams. The show also featured a performance by the Sarah McLachlan Musical Outreach Choir & Percussion Ensemble, a children's choir and percussion band from the aforementioned Vancouver outreach program. Entitled "One World: The Concert for  Tsunami Relief", the concert raised approximately $3.6 million for several Canadian aid agencies working in south and southeast Asia. On July 2, 2005, McLachlan participated in the Philadelphia installment of the Live 8 concerts, where she performed her hit "Angel" with Josh Groban. These concerts, which were held simultaneously in nine major cities around the world, were intended to coincide with the G8 summit to put pressure on the leaders of the world's richest nations to fight poverty in Africa by cancelling debt. In 2008, she donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with  the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 tsunami. On November 30, 2012, McLachlan lent her support to Kate Winslet's Golden Hat Foundation together with Tim Janis, Loreena McKennitt, Andrea Corr, Hayley Westenra, Sleepy Man Banjo Boys, Dawn Kenney, Jana Mashonee, Amy Petty and a choir etc. performing on "The American Christmas Carol" concert in Carnegie Hall. McLachlan is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism.