Information
Alannah Myles (born December 25, 1955 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. In 1989, she released her self-titled debut album called Alannah Myles. The single from the album "Black Velvet" topped the Billboard Hot 100, and was also a hit in four other countries, including Canada.
Early Life
Alannah grew up in Toronto and Buckhorn, where her family owned a ranch and where she also learned to ride horses. She wrote her first song at the age of eight, called "Ugly Little Cabbage in the Garden," a song meant for her sister (who she was teasing). There is a story that, later in her life, she had to sell her horse to buy an Ovation guitar to play in various clubs and coffee houses. Since she came from a very wealthy family, this is unlikely.
Career
When she was eighteen, she began performing in Southern Ontario. She eventually met Christopher Ward, with whom she formed a band and performed cover songs of Aretha Franklin, Bob Seger and The Pretenders. She managed to get gigs by tricking club managers into believing some of her own original songs were cover songs from other bands. Later, she joined with David Tyson to complete her band.
In 1989 she released her first, self-titled album. It produced two top 10 hits, "Love Is" and "Lover of Mine" and a top 40 hit, "Still Got This Thing" and the number one hit "Black Velvet." "Black Velvet" was a number one hit worldwide and was named the most played song on radio. "Black Velvet" won her a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance, and several Juno awards. By this point, Alannah was known worldwide.
1992 brought the follow up album, Rockinghorse, which included the number one hit in Canada and the US, "Song Instead of a Kiss" and the top 40 hits "Our World, Our Times," and "Sonny, Say You Will." She received a Grammy nomination and 3 Juno awards.
1995 brought A-LAN-NAH, a lesser-known album which did not contain any top 40 singles. It did include two tracks which made it into the top 100, "Family Secret" and "Blow Wind Blow." Although not as popular as the previous two albums, it still went platinum.
In 1997 she left her eight-record contract at Atlantic records and moved to ARK 21 records. Here she release Arrival which had the top 40 hit "Bad 4 You."
In February 2005, together with the Swedish band K2 and Kee Marcello, she participated in the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song "We Got It All" scored very few points and finished 7th out of eight songs.
Alannah continues to tour Canada and the rest of the world. She is working on a new album called Black Velvet which is expected to be released in June 2007.
Special thanks to Wikipedia!