Sarah McLachlan
With over 25 years in the recording industry, Sarah McLachlan is a multi-platinum singer and songwriter best known for her intimate vocals and relatable lyrics. The Canadian-born, Grammy- and Juno Award-winning artist has sold over 40 million albums.
McLachlan was instantly drawn to music as a child and honed her skill by studying voice, classical piano and guitar. At just 17 years old, McLachlan was discovered by Nettwerk Records while leading a New Wave band. With her reluctant parents asking her to focus on school, McLachlan waited two years before signing with Nettwerk. With a deal in place, McLachlan packed her bags, moved to Vancouver and began writing music for her first album, Touch.
McLachlan followed up her first gold album with Solace, solidifying her as a rising star in Canada. With two successful albums under her belt, McLachlan began penning the lyrics for Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. An immediate hit in Canada, it became her breakthrough in the United States making it onto the contemporary charts and producing the haunting single “Possession”.
McLachlan’s next album would become her best-selling to date. Surfacing peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 album charts and went eight-time’s platinum in the U.S. The 1997 album was awarded with a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance for “Building a Mystery” and another for Best Pop Instrumental Performance for “Last Dance.” Surfacing also provided McLachlan with four Juno Awards in her native Canada.
1997 was a big year for McLachlan. Along with her critically-acclaimed Surfacing release, McLachlan helped organize Lilith Fair which brought over 2 million people together during its three-year run. The Lilith Fair tours raised more than $7 million for women’s charities and helped launch the careers of numerous women singer-songwriters. The festival was the most successful all-female music event and was the top-grossing touring festival of that year.
In the summer of 1999, McLachlan released Mirrorball, featuring live performances of hit songs from her previous two albums. The four-time platinum selling album earned her a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Album and won the Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for “I Will Remember You”.
Returning to the studio, McLachlan burst back into the spotlight with Afterglow. Reaching double-platinum, Afterglow featured hit singles “Fallen”, “World on Fire” and “Stupid”. McLachlan promoted her album for eight months and followed its release with a year and a half of touring. That extensive tour provided her with the tracks for her 2004 release of Afterglow Live which also included a DVD of concert footage and three music videos from Afterglow.
Changing directions in 2006, McLachlan released her first Christmas album, Wintersong. Filled with timeless tracks like her cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River” and the winter classic “Silent Night,” the album rose to the #7 album on the Billboard 200 album chart and claimed the #1 spot on iTunes.
In 2010, McLachlan released her first studio album of all original material for the first time in nearly seven years, titled Laws of Illusion. Produced by longtime collaborator Pierre Marchand, the album featured 12 new songs and debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200. This album featured the single “One Dream,” which became the official theme song of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. McLachlan then went on to perform her hit “Ordinary Miracle” at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in her home city Vancouver in front of an estimated 3 billion television viewers worldwide.
