Sarah McLachlan

Multiple Grammy winner Sarah McLachlan gradually became one of Canada's biggest pop exports during the 1990s, but was arguably just as renowned for her charitable efforts and status as Lilith Fair co-founder as for her trademark emotive piano ballads. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, McLachlan took singing, guitar and classical piano lessons from a young age and formed her short-lived first rock band, The October Game, while still at high school. After turning down a record deal with Nettwerk in order to finish her studies at her home state's College of Art and Design, McLachlan eventually signed with the Vancouver indie label in 1988, releasing her debut album, Touch, in the same year. 1991 sophomore Solace, the first of several collaborations with long-term producer Pierre Marchand, further showcased her potential, spawning a couple of Canadian Top 40 hits in the shape of "The Path Of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into The Fire." But it wasn't until 1993's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, a highly personal affair inspired by her travels filming a documentary on poverty and child prostitution in Southeast Asia, that audiences outside her homeland began to pay attention. Following the release of 1995 remix album The Freedom Sessions and 1996 collection Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff, McLachlan returned to the studio for 1997's landmark album Surfacing, an atmospheric and intelligently-crafted affair which peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard 200, produced two of her signature tunes ("Adia," "Angel") and received two Grammy Awards. McLachlan also reached another pivotal moment in her career in the same year when frustrated by concert promoters' refusal to book two consecutive female artists, she recruited the likes of Sheryl Crow, Tracy Chapman and Jewel to perform at a travelling festival dubbed Lilith Fair. Named after the medieval Jewish legend, the tour brought together over two million fans during its three-year run and was also credited with helping to usher in a new wave of female singer-songwriters. After releasing 1999 live album Mirrorball, performing Randy Newman's "Toy Story 2" (1999) number, "When He Loved Me," at the 2000 Academy Awards, and scoring her biggest European hit with the euphoric trance of Delirium collaboration "Silence," McLachlan took a break from the music scene to raise her first daughter. Reaching number two on the U.S. charts, 2003 comeback Afterglow proved that there was still an appetite for her melodic brand of adult contemporary pop and she continued to add to her tally of Billboard entries with 2005's Bloom: Remix Album, 2006's festive-themed Wintersong and 2008 compilation, Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan. In 2010, McLachlan performed the official Vancouver Winter Olympics theme song, "One Dream," in front of three billion viewers at the Opening Ceremony and recorded her seventh studio effort, Laws Of Illusion. Inspired by the death of her father and divorce from her drummer husband Ashwin Sood, the bittersweet Shine On, her first release through Verve Records, then followed in 2014.