Sarah McLachlan, The #70 Female Artist of the Rock Era

Sarah McLachlan was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.  She took voice lessons as a child, and studied classical piano and guitar.  While at Queen Elizabeth High School, she sang lead for a band called the October Game.  After the group's first show opening for Moev, McLachlan was offered a recording contract with Nettwerk Records.  McLachlan finished high school and studied for a year at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before finally signing with Nettwerk.

McLachlan recorded her debut album Touch in 1988.  It received favorable critical response, and the 1991 album Solace was her breakthrough in her native Canada.  McLachlan released the singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire" from the album.

In 1993, Sarah released the album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, which was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.  The single "Hold On" climbed into the Top 15 in Canada and received airplay in the United States as well.

In 1996, frustrated by concert promoters and radio stations who refused to feature female artists back-to-back (Trust me, this really did happen), McLachlan booked her own tour with Paula Cole, and the following year founded the Lilith Fair Tour, a showcase for the world's top female artists.  The Fair continued in 1997 and 1998 and has now been brought back.  It has introduced numerous female artists to music fans. 

In 1997, McLachlan released Surfacing, which made her a household name.  "Building a Mystery" was #1 in Canada and a much underrated #13 in the United States.  Sarah won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, and Surfacing was nominated for Best Pop Album. 

McLachlan also won four Juno Awards, including Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "Building A Mystery" and Album of the Year.  "Sweet Surrender" was the follow-up.

"Adia" gave McLachlan her second Top 10 song, landing at #3 in both the U.S. and Canada.  It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Surfacing has now sold over 16 million copies worldwide.  A major reason for the surge in sales came from this song, "Angel", which reached #9.  "Angel" was included in the great movie City of Angels starring Meg Ryan and Nicholas Cage.  McLachlan won a Billboard Music Award for Top Adult Contemporary Track.  The album went to #1 and sold over four million copies.

McLachlan also won a Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental for "Last Dance".

In 1999, Sarah was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada.  McLachlan released the live album Mirrorball.  She released a live version of "I Will Remember You", which was a big Adult Contemporary hit, and earned Sarah another Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.  Mirrorball was nominated for Best Pop Album, while the song "Possession" was nominated for Best Female Rock
Vocal Performance.

Sarah received another Grammy nomination when her song with Sheryl Crow ("The Difficult Kind") was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.  She recorded the Randy Newman song "When She Loved Me" for the movie Toy Story 2.  The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song.

McLachlan co-wrote and sang on the Delerium song "Silence".  She then took a break to give birth to her daughter, India, in 2002.   The next year, Sarah released the album Afterglow, which contained the single "Fallen" that reached #12.  It was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, while Afterglow was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album.

In 2006, McLachlan, released the Christmas album Wintersong.  The album included a cover of Joni Mitchell's "River", which reached #8 on the AC chart.

Wintersong has now gone Platinum, just part of McLachlan's  40 million worldwide sales.  Wintersong was nominated for a Grammy for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album and a Juno for Pop Album of the Year.

Also that year, McLachlan recorded "Ordinary Miracle" for the movie Charlotte's Web.  She performed the song during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, in front of three billion television viewers.

McLaughlin's single "One Dream" was the official theme song of the Winter Olympics.

McLachlan has been recognized for her work with Lilith Fair, earning the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Visionary Award in 1998 for advancing the careers of women in music.  In 1999, Sarah 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.  In 2001, she was inducted to the Order of British Columbia.

In 2011, McLachlan received an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University.  Kiwanis International awarded her the 2013 Kiwanis International World Service Medial to recognize her for founding the Sarah McLachlan School of Music, a free music school for at-risk youth in Vancouver.

Sarah has a new album planned for release in the Spring of 2014.

McLachlan has now sold over 16.5 million albums in the U.S. alone, and 40 million worldwide.  She has scored 10 hits, with two reaching the Top 10 overall, but on the more dominate Adult Contemporary chart, she has achieved 13 hits, with seven of those going Top 10, and one #1 song.