Biography
This Halifax native has had a life-long love affair with music. Sarah began vocal, classical guitar and piano lessons when she was a child, and fronted her first band at 17. When offered a label contract with Nettwerk, McLachlan moved to Vancouver and began recording her debut studio album Touch in 1988. She enjoyed critical and commercial success with the single “Vox”, and began work on her 1991 release Solace.
Sarah’s popularity skyrocketed in Canada with Solace, which spawned the hit singles “The Path of Thorns (Terms)” and “Into the Fire”. She followed Solace with 1993’s Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, which was an instant hit in Canada; and 1997’s Surfacing, her best-selling and best known album to date. Surfacing led to many award nominations and wins for Sarah, including winning the JUNO for Album of the Year and a Grammy win for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “Building a Mystery”. Since the start of her career, Sarah has received over 20 JUNO nominations, eight JUNO wins, over 10 Grammy nominations and three Grammy wins.
Also in 1997, Sarah organized and launched the first Lilith Fair tour. The festival, which journeyed across North America from 1997-1999, showcased female singer/songwriters including Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, Paula Cole, and the Indigo Girls. It was one of the top grossing concert draws of 1997 and, over its three year run, raised more than $7 million dollars for deserving charities.
Since the late 1990s, Sarah has released another two albums, was inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada, continued extensive philanthropic work, was awarded an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University and even brought Lilith Fair back to tour North America in the summer of 2012.
Sources: AllMusic.com, Wikipedia, Wikipedia Nominations and Awards
Relationship
- Played the piano and added in vocals on Five Days in July's "Dark Angel" and "Tell Me Your Dream" and provided vocals on "What Is This Love" and "Know Where You Go".
On Nowhere To Here, Sarah provided the vocals on "Girl In Green", "Save Myself" and "Brown-Eyed Dog".
- On Greg's Keelor's solo record Gone, Sarah contributed piano, vocals and lead guitar on "When I See You"; piano on "Redemption", "All Our Heroes", and "Star of the Show"; vocals on "White Marble Ganesh" and piano and vocals on "Heaven".
- Sarah also appears on World Vision's 30 Hour Famine CD along with Jim Cuddy. Partial proceeds from this benefit compilation help the charity in its effort to end world hunger. Sarah Mclachlan's "Ice Cream" is on the album, as well as Jim Cuddy's "Everybody Cries".
- On February 12, 1997, Sarah appeared at the Leonard Peltier Defense Fund Benefit concert. Blue Rodeo was the headliner for that show. The concert followed the release of Pine Ridge - An Open Letter To Allan Rock . Both were organized by Greg Keelor in the hopes of raising awareness and money to help free Leonard Peltier from jail. On the CD, Sarah sings the first track, her version of "Unchained Melody".
- Along with these album collaborations, Sarah has been known to show up with the band onstage. On the Nowhere To Here tour she joined the band at GM Place and lent her voice to "Sky" as well as singing her own track, "Ice Cream." Sarah joined the band in Vancouver on their The Days In Between tour. This time she stayed out a little while longer. The band played backup to her "Building A Mystery". She paid them back by singing along to "Bad Timing", "Cynthia", "Know Where You Go/Tell Me Your Dream".
Quotes
"She's so gracious with her talent. I don't think there's anything artificial about Sarah's success. She's a really talented person and her success will blossom in many different ways." - Jim Cuddy
Sarah McLachlan's Website