Suzanne Vega - Biography

Last Editor: gunveerkohli37				Suzanne Vega Biography -   Name : Suzanne Vega Profession : Singer Birth Details : born July 11, 1959 Birth name : Suzanne Nadine Vega Nickname : The Mother of the MP3 Personal quotes : "My idea of a perfect folk song is something in a minor key with a tragic ending - preferably suicide or madness. Something with no chorus. Someth Spouse : Paul Mills (11 February 2006 - present) Mitchell Froom (17 March 1995 - 1998) (divorced) 1 child

Suzanne Vega Trivia -

Daughter, Ruby, b. 1994. Studied modern dance at the High School of the Performing Arts in New York (the "Fame" school). Born in Santa Monica, California, but moved to New York when she was about one year old and considers it her home. Her CD 'Tom's Diner' was the inspiration for the creation of the mp3 computer audio file format. Her song "Tom's Diner" was used as a quality benchmark test track during development of the MP3 computer audio codec Attended Barnard College. Worked as an office temp (secretary) while struggling as a singer-songwriter in New York.

Suzanne Vega Detailed Biography -

Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer known for her poetic lyrics and eclectic folk inspired music. Suzanne Vega was born in Santa Monica, California, but, at the age of one moved with her mother (a computer systems analyst) and her stepfather (a writer from Puerto Rico) to New York City, where she grew up in a socially problematic area (Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side). At the age of nine she began to write poems; she wrote her first song at age 14. Later she attended the New York City High School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the feature film musical Fame), where she studied modern dance. Music, however, was her first love. While majoring in English literature at Columbia University's Barnard College, she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to the Monday night songwriters group at the Cornelia Street Cafe. In 1984, she received a major label record contract. Vega's eponymous debut album, Suzanne Vega, was released in 1985 and was well received by critics in the US; it reached platium status in Britain. Produced by Lenny Kaye and Steve Abadoo, the songs feature Vega's acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements and oppose the "bigger is better" ethos of the mid-1980s. Vega's POV vignettes of characters and even inanimate objects such as in "Small Blue Thing" are taut and introspective, in the manner of the singer-songwriters of the 1970s, such as Leonard Cohen. Her sophomore effort, Solitude Standing (1987) garnered critical and commercial success including two successful singles: "Tom's Diner", and "Luka". . With this album Vega was heralded as part of a second generation of female singer-songwriters including Tracy Chapman, Michelle Shocked and Shawn Colvin. "Luka" is written about and from the point of view of a battered child—at the time an uncommon subject for a pop hit¹. While continuing a focus on Vega's acoustic guitar, the music is more strongly pop-oriented and features fuller more sensual arrangements. The a capella "Tom's Diner" was later a hit remixed by two British dance producers under the name DNA (not to be confused with the no wave band DNA) and Vega recorded new vocal tracks specially for the remix. Vega's third album, Days of Open Hand (1990) signified a change in style: the music became more experimental, and the lyrics expressed greater emotion. The album lacked hit single material and is best considered as a whole. In 1992 she released the album 99.9F° ("ninety-nine point nine Fahrenheit degrees"). It consists of an eclectic mixture of folk music, dance beats and industrial music. This gives a sunny quality to the work in contrast to the previous album. The songs are short and the lyric style compressed. The fifth album, Nine Objects of Desire, was released in 1996. The music varies between a frugal, simple style and the industrial production of 99.9F°. This album contains "Caramel", featured in the movie The Truth About Cats and Dogs and, later, the trailer for the movie Closer. A song not included on that album, "Woman on the Tier," was featured on the soundtrack of the movie Dead Man Walking. September 2001 saw the release of a new album, Songs In Red and Gray. Though many dub it a 'divorce-album', only three songs are directed at Vega's divorce from record producer Mitchell Froom. At the memorial concert for her brother Timothy Vega in December 2002, she began as the long-term subject of a direct cinema documentary, Some Journey, by director Christopher Seufert of Mooncusser Films. This is rumoured to be released in 2006. In 2003, the 21-song greatest hits compilation Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega was released. (The UK version of Retrospective included an eight-song bonus CD as well as a DVD containing twelve songs.) In the same year she was invited by Grammy Award-winning jazz guitarist Bill Frisell to play at the Century of Song concerts at the famed RuhrTriennale in Germany. She plans to go into the recording studios in the spring of 2006, with the aim of releasing a new studio album in late 2006. Vega has a daughter, Ruby Froom. The band Soul Coughing's Ruby Vroom album took its name from her, with Suzanne's approval, though she requested a slight change. On February 13, 2006, Vega married Paul Mills, a lawyer and a poet. They originally met each other at Folk City on West 4th Street in 1981. In their own humorous words, Mr. Mills proposed to Miss Vega in May, 1983, and she accepted his proposal on Christmas Day, 2005. Albums Suzanne Vega, 1985 Solitude Standing, 1987 - UK - 2, US - 2 Days of Open Hand, 1990 - US - 7 99.9F°, 1992 Nine Objects of Desire, 1996 Songs in Red and Gray, 2001 Retrospective: The Best of Suzanne Vega, 2003 (Featuring several non-album tracks) Singles "Marlene On The Wall", 1985 "Small Blue Thing", 1985 "Knight Moves", 1985 "Marlene On The Wall" second release, 1986 "Left Of Centre", 1986 "Gypsy", 1986 "Luka", 1987 "Tom's Diner", 1987 "Solitude Standing", 1987 "Book Of Dreams", 1990 "Tired of Sleeping", 1990 "Men in a War", 1990 "Tom's Diner (DNA remix)", 1990 "Rusted Pipe (DNA remixes)", promotional, 1991 "In Liverpool", 1992 "Blood Makes Noise", 1992 "99.9F°", 1992 "When Heroes Go Down", 1993 "Caramel", 1996 "No Cheap Thrill", 1996 "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