Alannah Myles
Alannah Myles (b.
Alannah Byles,
December 25,
1958 in
Toronto,
Ontario,
Canada) is a
Canadian musician. She grew up in Toronto and
Buckhorn, where her family owns 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.
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 from
Aretha Franklin,
Bob Seger and
The Pretenders. She actually managed to get more 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 the song "
Black Velvet" which was a hit in numerous countries, including Canada, where it went ten times
platinum. In the US, it reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In total, the single sold five million records worldwide and won three
Juno Awards and a
Grammy Award. The song was also recorded by country artist
Robin Lee. She also had another Top 40 hit in the US with "Love Is" which hit number 36. She toured for eighteen months straight, opening for various performers such as
Robert Plant (with whom she would later have a relationship),
Tina Turner and
Simple Minds.
In February 2005, together with
K2 (Swedish band) 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.
["Melodifestivalen 2005: Deltävling 3 (Third Semi-Final)"] Myles had several other hits in Canada, including "Love Is" and "Song Instead of a Kiss".
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Alannah Myles (1989)
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Rockinghorse (1992)
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A-lan-nah (1995)
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A Rival (1997)
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Alannah Myles: The Very Best Of (1998)
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Welcome to The Alannah Myles Website*
Rolling Stone.com Biography*
Alannah Myles Lyrics
