McLachlan, Sarah

▪ 1999

      After a decade in which her music reached a relatively limited number of devoted fans, Canadian singer and songwriter Sarah McLachlan surfaced in 1998 as the acclaimed leader of a musical revolution. She was hailed for her role as organizer and headliner of the phenomenally successful Lilith Fair, a traveling summer concert tour that featured female musicians and amassed over $25 million in its second year. Earlier in the year, McLachlan had won two Grammy awards for her introspective album Surfacing.

      Born Jan. 28, 1968, in Halifax, N.S., McLachlan received classical training in guitar, piano, and voice. Rebelling against a conservative upbringing, she focused her musical talents on the popular punk and new-wave music movements of the 1980s. She was discovered by an executive at a Canadian record label when she was 17 and the lead singer of the October Game. After two years at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, McLachlan moved to Vancouver, B.C., signed a recording contract, and released her debut album, Touch, in 1988. The critically acclaimed recording was followed by such other albums as Solace (1991), Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993), and The Freedom Sessions (1995), all showcasing McLachlan's talents as a singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Her fans were immediately drawn to her vocal range and the intense emotion that came to define her music.

      These qualities were evident in Surfacing (released in late 1997), an extremely personal album that was written after months of soul searching. The candidness of such songs as "Sweet Surrender" and "Building a Mystery," about artists' creation of new identities, earned McLachlan Grammy awards for best female pop vocal performance and best pop instrumental. She also received Juno (Canadian Music) Awards for best album, best female vocalist, single of the year, and songwriter of the year and East Coast Music Awards for female artist of the year, songwriter of the year, and video of the year. Her good fortune continued into the summer of 1998, when Lilith Fair, which she had founded in 1997, outsold all other collaborative tours. By bringing together some of the most talented and popular women artists in the music industry, including Jewel, Tracy Chapman, and Paula Cole, McLachlan proved to wary record executives that women artists were as marketable as their male counterparts.

LAURA RODNITZKY

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