Sarah Ann McLachlan
, OC, OBC (born , she gave birth to her second daughter, Taja Summer Sood, in Vancouver. McLachlan announced her separation from Ashwin Sood in September 2008. [3]
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Musical career
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".
Solace
also marked the beginning of her partnership with
Pierre Marchand. Marchand and McLachlan have been collaborators ever since, with Marchand producing all of McLachlan's albums and occasionally co-writing songs.
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
, Surfacing
, and Lilith Fair
thumb
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
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.
In 1993,
Darryl Neudorf filed a lawsuit against McLachlan and her label, Nettwerk, alleging that he had made a significant and uncredited contribution to the songwriting on
Touch
, and alleging that he wasn't paid properly for work done on
Solace
. The judge in this suit eventually ruled in McLachlan's favour on the songs; though Neudorf may have contributed to the songwriting, neither regarded each other as joint authors. The judge ruled in Neudorf's favour on the payment issue.
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 the single "Possession".
[4] The lawsuit was also challenging for the Canadian legal system—Vandrei was a self-admitted
stalker whose self-acknowledged goal in filing the lawsuit was to be near McLachlan physically. Consequently, special precautions were planned to ensure McLachlan's safety if at any time she had to be in the same location as Vandrei. The lawsuit never came to trial, however, as Vandrei was found dead in an apparent
suicide before the trial began. This topic was explored at length in Canadian author
Judith Fitzgerald's book,
Building A Mystery: The Story of Sarah McLachlan & Lilith Fair
.
Following the success from
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
, McLachlan returned in 1997 with
Surfacing
, her best selling album to date. Earning her two
Grammy Awards and four
Juno Awards, the album has since sold over 11 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.
In Spring 1998 the motion picture
City of Angels
featured "Angel". It became the No. 1 album on the
Billboard
chart. More than five months after the movie disappeared from the theaters,
City of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture
remained firmly entrenched among
Billboard
s top 40 albums. This soundtrack earned quadruple-platinum status.
[5]
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
In 1998, in addition to performing her own set, she performed a cover of Sad Lisa 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. Six years would elapse between the release of
Surfacing
and that of her next studio album,
Afterglow
.
However, she did release a live album in 1999, entitled
Mirrorball
. The album's singles included a new live version of her earlier doubles "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
.
Also that year, 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 Song in 2000, and McLachlan performed it at the awards ceremony, but the award went to "
You'll Be in My Heart" from
Tarzan
, written and recorded by
Phil Collins.
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 top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000 and also featured on the soundtrack for the movie
Brokedown Palace
. 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
Spirit: 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 from Central Park
in 1999, the
Arista Records twenty-fifth 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.
"The Witness", Afterglow
and associated philanthropy
In addition to being used often to remember human beings who have died in disasters like the
September 11 attacks, McLachlan's song "Angel" also appears on the soundtrack near the end of Tribe Of Heart's 45-minute documentary DVD titled "The Witness". The scene shows people's reactions to videos shown by Eddie Lama from his van, of how animals are killed for use of their fur.
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 2 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. In addition to her own headliner show she also joined
Delerium live on stage for their first-ever performance of 'Silence'. 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.
During the Summer of 2005 "
World On Fire." was used for the TNT miniseries
Into the West.
On 2 2005-07-02}}, 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.
Wintersong
and later work
McLachlan hand-wrote a letter, copies of which were sent to members of her fan club in late March 2006, stating that she was beginning work on a holiday album due to be released later that year.
On 2 July 29}}, a press release
[6] announced McLachlan would be releasing a new album 2 October 17}} titled
Wintersong
on
Arista Records. The first new studio recording since the 2003 release of Afterglow, the album includes 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 interpreted by McLachlan with her signature style: "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. Included, also, is the title track, an original work of McLachlan's.
Wintersong
debuted at No. 42 on the
Billboard 200 album chart the week ending 2 2006-11-04}}. It has peaked at #7 and has sold 759,162 copies in the US to date. For the week of 2 2006-12-05}}, it was the #1 album on iTunes. Worldwide the album has sold 1.1 million copies to date. It has been certified Platinum in the U.S and 2x Platinum in Canada.
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 2 2006-10-03}}, the live album
Mirrorball
was re-released as
Mirrorball: The Complete Concert
. This release contains 2 discs that span over 2 hours of a concert performed in Portland, Oregon, in April 1998.
In November 2006, McLachlan performed the song "Ordinary Miracle" for that year's feature film,
Charlotte's Web
. The song was written by
Glen Ballard and
David A. Stewart of
Eurythmics.
McLachlan was the subject of rumours of an
Oscar nomination for the song, but in the end was not nominated. She helped to promote the song and movie by performing it on
The Oprah Winfrey Show as well as during the
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As of January 2008, "Ordinary Miracle" was covered by Kathy Fisher for use in commercials for
CVS/pharmacy, and jazz singer
Emilie-Claire Barlow recorded her own version of the song for
Sun Life Financial commercials in Canada.
McLachlan has collaborated on two tracks since
Wintersong
. In early 2007, she added her voice to
Dave Stewart's
Go Green
, alongside
Nadirah X,
Imogen Heap,
Natalie Imbruglia, and others.
[7]
McLachlan also appeared on
Annie Lennox's album,
Songs of Mass Destruction
. Together with
Madonna,
Céline Dion,
Pink,
Sugababes,
Angélique Kidjo,
k.d. lang,
Faith Hill,
Fergie,
Melissa Etheridge,
Bonnie Raitt,
Shakira,
Anastacia,
Joss Stone,
Dido, and
KT Tunstall, Sarah loaned her voice to the track "
Sing".
McLachlan stated in an interview with
Billboard
on 2 2006-10-18}}, that she has written one song, and starting in the new year, she will focus more on writing a new album.
[8]
In 2007, McLachlan's song "Answer" featured in
The Brave One
starring
Jodie Foster.
She is an avid supporter of the
ASPCA and
animal welfare. She filmed a two-minute advertisement for the organization
[9] 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
[10].
2 2008-04-29}} saw the release of
Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2
. The tracklist 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.
2 2008-08-05}} saw the release of the 15th anniversary 3-disc edition of
Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
. The set includes the original remastered 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,
Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan
, on 2 2008-10-07}}. On 2 2008-08-12}} she released a new song from the album, "
U want me 2," a mid-tempo contemplative love song, as a digital single on
iTunes; 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. Being quietly released as a single on 3 February 2009 the other new song found on the album, "Don't Give Up on Us", signaled a wrap. (McLachlan's official website features pictures of McLachlan from a companion photo shoot.)
Work on a new full length album continues during an official announcement from McLachlan's camp for a Lilith Fair 2010 Summer festival to include European stops.
Guitars and equipment
For years, Sarah McLachlan's main stage guitar has been a late-'70s
Larrivée C-10 with
rosewood back and sides, a
spruce top, and a Florentine cutaway. The guitar is amplified with a Fishman Rare Earth Blend (which combines a magnetic pickup and an internal mic), running through a Radial JDV Mk3 active DI. She has also performed with Canadian-made guitars, and has reported to be trying out Taylor models with Expression System electronics.
McLachlan strings her guitars with phosphor-bronze or vintage bronze Dean Markleys. She uses medium-lights (.012—.054) for her guitars in E A D G A D and D A D G A D tunings. Sometimes she uses lights (.011—.046) and raises E A D G A D a whole step so her capo positions can be two frets lower. For instance, in the past she played "Building a Mystery" in E A D G A D with a capo at the seventh fret, but now she tunes to F# B E A B E and capoes at the fifth fret. McLachlan's capo of choice is a Dunlop C-Four.
[11]
Awards and achievements
McLachlan has been nominated for twenty-one
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." Among these, she is credited for various nominations.
Her song "Building A Mystery" came in at 91 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s.
[12]
McLachlan has been extensively profiled by media including cover stories for
Rolling Stone
,
Time
magazine,
Entertainment Weekly
and
Flare
, a Canadian fashion magazine.
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 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.
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.
[13]
Discography
Studio albums
| 6
|
Singles
| 37
|
EPs
| 3
|
Compilation albums
| 3
|
Live albums
| 4
|
Video albums
| 8
|
References
- Honours (Sarah McLachlan, O.C., O.B.C.)
- Sarah McLachlan’s voice range.
- http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003848771
- Canadian Scandals
- http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE1D8103DF934A15751C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewan
- http://www.advocate.com/news_detail_ektid34824.asp ''Advocate.com''
- www.greenpeaceworks.com
- Blackened-Sky.net
- http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=now_drtv ''ASPCA.org'' Retrieved on {{date|2007-05-18|iso}}
- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/26/us/26charity.html
- May 2004, Issue No.137 of Acoustic Guitar magazine
- "100 greatest songs of the 90s (hour 1) from VH1
- B.C. gives $500,000 to music outreach project for youth, News release, Office of the Premier, {{date|2007-05-14|df=y}}, retrieved on {{date|2007-05-22|iso}}