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Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. She founded Lilith Fair, a tour which showcased female musicians in the late 1990s.

Known for the emotional sound of her ballads, some of her popular songs include "Angel", "Building a Mystery", "Adia", "Possession", "I Will Remember You" and "Into the Fire". Her best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four Juno Awards (Canada's equivalent to the Grammys).

Biography

Early life

Sarah McLachlan was born on January 28, 1968, and adopted in Halifax, Nova Scotia. As a child, she took voice lessons, along with studies in classical piano and guitar. When she was 17 years old, and still a student at Queen Elizabeth High School, she fronted a short-lived rock band called "The October Game". Her high school yearbook claimed that she was "destined to become a famous rock star."

Following The October Game's first concert at Dalhousie University, McLachlan was offered a recording contract with Vancouver based independent record label Nettwerk. McLachlan's parents convinced her to finish her studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before embarking on a new life as a recording artist. She was signed to Nettwerk before having written a single song.

Touch and Solace

The signing prompted McLachlan to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded the first of her albums, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song "Vox". During this period she also contributed to an album by Moev, 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".

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Surfacing, and Lilith Fair

1993's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate smash hit in Canada. From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South television series soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy quietly became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries and setting the stage for 1997's Surfacing, which debuted at the top of the charts amid the hype around Lilith Fair. The McLachlan-founded 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.

Hiatus

On February 7, 1997, she married Ashwin Sood, her long-time drummer, in Negril, Jamaica. In 1998, she performed three songs with rock band Phish at the annual Bridge School Benefit concert in California, hosted by Neil Young, after which McLachlan began an extended period away from recording or touring. However, she did release a live album in 1999, entitled Mirrorball, which produced the single "I Will Remember You." Also that year, McLachlan contributed the song "When She Loved Me" to the Toy Story 2 soundtrack.

In 2000, the Delerium song "Silence," on which McLachlan provided guest vocals, achieved a modest amount of top 40 airplay. It was also part of the soundtrack for the movie Brokedown Palace. In 2001, McLachlan provided guest star vocals on Stevie Nicks' eighth solo album, Trouble In Shangri-La, appearing on the song "Love Is." In May 2002, her duet with Bryan Adams was released on the Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack. She sang harmonies and played the piano on the song "Don't Let Go" while Sood did the drum work.

McLachlan also participated in several concerts during her break, such as Sheryl Crow's Live in Central Park in 1999, the Arista Records 25th anniversary celebration in 2000, as well as the 2002 British Columbia Cancer Foundation Benefit Concert in memory of cancer victim Michele Bourbonnais. She participated along with four other Canadian artists: Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, Barenaked Ladies, and Chantal Kreviazuk.

McLachlan lost her mother to cancer in December 2001, while McLachlan herself was pregnant. McLachlan gave birth to a daughter named India on April 6, 2002, in Vancouver. By this time, McLachlan had already completed three-quarters of the production on her next record, Afterglow.

Afterglow

Sarah 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.

Although she has returned to touring, she has no current plans to resurrect Lilith Fair. 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, 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.

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. The concert was titled One World: The Concert for Tsunami Relief, and raised approximately $3.6 million for several Canadian aid agencies working in south and southeast Asia. The show was the brainchild of McLachlan's manager, Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk. It ran for four hours and aired live on CTV across Canada.

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 increasing aid.

According to a letter handwritten by McLachlan, copies of which were sent to members of her fan club in late March 2006, Sarah will begin work on a holiday album due to be released later that year.

Awards and achievements

Sarah McLachlan has been nominated for nineteen Juno Awards and awarded eight. 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."

She 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 has been extensively profiled by media including cover stories for Rolling Stone, Time magazine and Entertainment Weekly.

Through her career, she has also received many awards, primarily in recognition of her efforts in launching Lilith Fair. She 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 in recognition of her successful recording career, her role in Lilith Fair, and the charitable donations she made to women's shelters across Canada. McLachlan also funds an outreach program in Vancouver that provides music education for inner city children. In 2001, she was awarded the Order of British Columbia.

Trivia

On a number of occasions, McLachlan has also found herself in the news for other reasons:
  • In 1994, she was sued by Uwe Vandrei, an obsessed fan from Ottawa, Ontario, who alleged that his letters to her had been the basis of her hit single "Possession". This lawsuit never came to trial, however, as the plaintiff was found dead in an apparent suicide before the trial began. The lawsuit was also challenging for the Canadian legal system. This topic was explored in length in Canadian author Judith Fitzgerald's book, Building A Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan & Lilith Fair.
  • In 1998, the title of McLachlan's song "Do What You Have to Do" was cited in Kenneth Starr's report as the subject of a letter from Monica Lewinsky to Bill Clinton.
  • In 1999, McLachlan and Nettwerk were sued by Darryl Neudorf, a Vancouver musician (and onetime member of 54-40) who alleged that he had made a significant and uncredited contribution to the song writing on Touch. The judge in this suit ultimately ruled in McLachlan's favor.
  • In 2004, McLachlan's song "The Path of Thorns" was the 50 millionth song downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store. * Sarah has also sold an estimated 30 million albums world wide. Her song "I Will Remember You" has been used all over the U.S. as a graduation song. Her song "Angel" has been used to remember the dead.
  • Many of McLachlan's songs have had a great deal of club play as remixes. Two albums consisting of popular remixes have been released, Remixed in 2001 (first limited to Canada, then released in the U.S. in 2003) and Remix Album in 2005.

Discography

Albums

Year Album US RIAA cert. CRIA cert. Notes
1988 Touch 132 Gold Plat. debut album, reissued in 1989 with new cover art.
1991 Solace 167 Gold 2X Plat. -
1992 Live EP - - Limited edition live EP recorded September 1992 at Harbourfront in Toronto, Ontario.
1993 Fumbling Towards Ecstasy 50 3X Plat. 5X Plat. -
1994 The Freedom Sessions 78 Gold Platinum one of the first enhanced CDs ever released, combining music with CD-ROM material.
1995 Murmurs Volume 1 - - available to fan club members only; includes interview clips.
1996 Murmurs Volume 2 - - available to fan club members only.
1996 Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff - - Platinum B-sides and exclusive material.
1997 Surfacing 2 8X Plat. 10X Plat. (Diamond) -
1997 Murmurs Volume 3 - - available to fan club members only; recorded live during Lilith Fair tour 1997.
1998 Murmurs Volume 4 - - available to fan club members only.
1999 Mirrorball 3 3X Plat. 5X Plat. live album, also issued in a deluxe limited edition version in Canada.
1999 Murmurs Volume 5 - - available to fan club members only.
2000 Murmurs Volume 6 - - available to fan club members only.
2001 Remixed - - remix album
2001 Murmurs Volume 7 - - available to fan club members only; "The London Acoustic Sessions".
2002 Murmurs Volume 8 - - available to fan club members only; "Ice Cream" (live) Recorded live in Vancouver, BC on October 10, 2002 at GM Place for the BC Cancer Foundation.
2003 Afterglow 2 2X Plat. 5X Plat. -
2004 Live Acoustic EP - - recorded live at the PC debut of iTunes on October 21 2003.
2004 Afterglow Live 107 - live album, also available as a "23-track exclusive" through McLachlan's website.
2005 Remix Album - - second remix album

Singles

''
Year Song US Hot 100 US Modern Rock US Dance Album
1988 "Vox" - - - Touch
1990 "Steaming" - - 38 Touch
1991 "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" - - - Solace
1991 "Into the Fire" - 4 - Solace
1992 "Drawn To the Rhythm" - - - Solace
1993 "Possession" 73 4 30 Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
1994 "Hold On" - 29 - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
1994 "Good Enough" 77 16 - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
1995 "I Will Remember You" 65 - - The Brothers McMullen soundtrack
1997 "Building a Mystery" 13 3 - Surfacing
1998 "Sweet Surrender" 28 14 6 Surfacing
1998 "Adia" 3 - - Surfacing
1999 "Angel" 4 - - Surfacing
1999 "I Will Remember You" (live) 14 - - Mirrorball
2000 "I Love You" - - 23 Surfacing
2000 "Silence" (Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan) - - 6 Karma (Delerium)
2002 "Don't Let Go" (duet with Bryan Adams) - - - Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimmaron
2003 "Fallen" 41 - 3 Afterglow
2003 "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan) - - - Barenaked For Christmas
2004 "Stupid" - - - Afterglow
2004 "World On Fire" - - 2 Afterglow
2004 "Silence 2004" (Delerium featuring Sarah McLachlan) - - 1 Karma
2005 "Push" (live) - - - Afterglow Live
2005 "Pills" (The Perishers featuring Sarah McLachlan) - - - The Perishers (Live)
2005 "Time After Time" (Cyndi Lauper featuring Sarah McLachlan) - - - The Body Acoustic
2005 "Water's Edge" (Cyndi Lauper featuring Sarah McLachlan) - - - The Body Acoustic
2006 "Just Like Me" (DMC featuring Sarah McLachlan) - - - ''Checks, Thugs, And Rock 'N' Roll

Video releases

  • 1994 Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: Live VHS
  • 1995 Sarah McLachlan Video Compilation: 1989-1994
  • 1998 Sarah McLachlan Video Compilation 1989-1998: DVD
  • 1999 Mirrorball DVD/VHS
  • 2004 Fallen/Stupid DVD
  • 2004 Afterglow Live DVD
  • 2005 Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Live DVD
  • 2005 Sarah McLachlan: A Life of Music DVD

Soundtracks

Non-CD Songs

Live Songs

  • "D'yer Mak'er" this is a cover song of Led Zepplin
  • "The American National Anthem" and "Oh Canada" The Canadian National Anthem, sung at the Pacific Coliseum.
  • "Four Strong Winds" with Neil Young and Phish for the Bridge School Benefit.
  • "Angel" performned with Josh Groban on Larry King Live.

See also

External links

1968 births | Adoptees | Living people | Canadian female singers | Canadian pop guitarists | Canadian keyboardists | Canadian pop pianists | Canadian pop singers | Canadian dance musicians | Dance/Club music artists | Canadian singer-songwriters | Female guitarists | Feminist artists | Gemini Award winners | Haligonians | Juno Award winners | Members of the Order of British Columbia | Officers of the Order of Canada | Musical activists | Nova Scotia musicians | Vancouverites | Arista Records musicians | British Columbia musicians | Grammy Award winners | Saturday Night Live musical guests

Sarah McLachlan | Sarah Mclachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan | Sarah McLachlan

 

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