Sarah McLachlan

Receiving voice, classical piano and guitar lessons as a child, by the time she was 17 Sarah McLachlan was already fronting a short-lived rock band called The October Game whose first concert resulted in her being offered a recording contract with Vancouver-based independent record label Nettwerk. Persuaded by her parents to finish high school and complete a year at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, two years later she moved to Vancouver and finally signed to Nettwerk still not having written a single song. She recorded her first album, Touch, in 1988, which received both critical and commercial success and included the hit song Vox. Her 1991 album Solace was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles The Path Of Thorns (Terms) and Into The Fire. With six studio albums under her belt, McLachlan - known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range - had sold more than 40 million albums worldwide by 2006 with 1997's Surfacing being her most successful. In 1997 McLachlan married her drummer Ashwin Sood, with whom she has two daughters. They separated in September 2008.