Born: July 11, 1959 in Santa Monica, California, USA
Origin: New York City, New York, USA
Genre(s): Alternative rock, Pop-Rock, Acoustic Pop, Folk-Pop, Experimental
Occupation(s): Singer, songwriter, record producer
Instrument(s): Vocals, guitar
Years active: 1982 - present
Site: http://www.suzannevega.com/
Suzanne Vega (born Suzanne Nadine Vega, 11 July 1959, Santa Monica, California) is an American singer-songwriter noted for her eclectic folk-inspired music. She lived most of her life in New York City, attending the New York City High School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the feature film musical Fame), where she studied modern dance.
Record companies saw little prospect of commercial success in the beginning; Vega's demo tape was rejected by every major record companytwice by A&M.
However, Vega realized that her talent in dance was not sufficient to make her living doing it. While attending Columbia studying English, she penned many songs and performed in the Greenwich Village area.
She was discovered in 1984, releasing her eponymous debut the following year. However, it was not until her sophomore effort, Solitude Standing, that Vega hit the big time.
In 1984 she was finally signed by A&M, and she is now a Grammy nominated artist. Two songs of Vega's (from her second album Solitude Standing 1987) that were very popular are Luka and Tom's Diner, which has been interpolated into many recordings by various artists.
Vega has a prolific catalog, and in 2003 she released a retrospective collection. Beauty & Crime, her seventh album, was released June 5th 2007 internationally and will be out on July 17th in North America. Inspired by the city where Suzanne grew up and still currently resides, Beauty & Crime revolves around Suzannes experiences in New York.
Vega has a daughter, Ruby Froom, with her ex-husband Mitchell Froom. In early 2006, Vega remarried, this time to Paul Mills.
She signed with Blue Note Records in the spring of 2006, and released Beauty & Crime on 17 July 2007. The album was produced by Jimmy Hogarth, which won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2007, Suzanne Vega, following the lead of numerous other mainstream artists released her track Pornographer's Dream as podsafe. The song spent two weeks at #1 during 2007 and finished as the #11 hit of the year on the PMC Top10's annual countdown.
DiscographyAlbums:
1985 Suzanne Vega UK#11, US#91
1987 Solitude Standing UK#2, US#11
1990 Days of Open Hand UK#7, US#50
1992 99.9F° UK#20, US#86
1996 Nine Objects of Desire UK#43, US#92
1998 Tried & True: The Best of Suzanne Vega (Compilation) UK #46
2001 Songs in Red and Gray US#178
2003 Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega (Compilation) UK #27
2007 Beauty & Crime UK#127, US#129
Singles:
* Marlene On The Wall, 1985 - UK #83
* Small Blue Thing, 1985 - UK #66
* Knight Moves, 1985
* Marlene On The Wall second release, 1986 - UK #21, AUS #39, Ireland #9
* Left Of Center, 1986 - UK #32, AUS #35
* Gypsy, 1986 - UK #77
* Luka, 1987 - UK #23, US #3, AT #9, AUS #21, FR #24, SWE #2, NZ #8, Ireland #11, Canada #5
* Tom's Diner, 1987 - UK #58
* Solitude Standing, 1987 - UK #79, US #94, AUS #91, NZ #45
* Book Of Dreams, 1990 - UK #66
* Tired of Sleeping, 1990
* Men in a War, 1990
* Tom's Diner (DNA remix), 1990 - UK #2, US #5, AT #1, AUS #8, FR #16, GER #1, SWI #1, NZ #8, Austria #1, Ireland #2
* Rusted Pipe (DNA remix), promotional, 1991
* In Liverpool, 1992 - UK #52
* 99.9F°, 1992 - UK #46
* Blood Makes Noise, 1992 - UK #60, AUS #61, NZ #42, Canada #27
* When Heroes Go Down, 1993 - UK #58
* Caramel, 1996
* No Cheap Thrill, 1996 - UK #40
* Birth-day, promotional, 1997
* World before Columbus, 1997
* Headshots, promotional, 1997
* Book & a Cover, 1998
* Rosemary / Remember me, 1999
* Widow's Walk, promotional, 2001
* Last Year's Troubles, promotional, 2001
* Penitent, promotional, 2001
* (I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May, promotional, 2002
* Frank & Ava, promotional, 2007
* Ludlow Street, promotional, 2007
* Unbound, promotional, 2007
* Pornographer's Dream, podsafe, 2007 - PMC #1
Sam Mai 31, 2008 6:42 pm