Born Jan. 28, 1968, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, McLachlan began singing at the age of 4. She studied piano, voice, and guitar during her school years, but the first instrument she learned to play was a ukulele, as she was initially too small to handle a full-size guitar. At 17, McLachlan was offered a record contract based on the debut performance of her very first band, a new-wave outfit called October Game. She turned down the opportunity, because her parents felt it would be wiser for her to attend art school than to sign with the then-fledgling Nettwerk Productions. McLachlan would spend a year at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design before Nettwerk came calling once again; on Oct. 2, 1987, she finally inked a deal.
Fueled by the college-radio hit "Vox," McLachlan's debut album, Touch (1988), quickly attracted an audience north of the border. Ethereal, alluring, and very much indebted to Kate Bush in sound and style, the disc achieved gold status in Canada. By December 1988, Arista had signed her to a deal in the United States, where Touch was released in 1989. The album spawned a fair share of critical interest, but did not sell particularly well. In 1991, McLachlan's second album, Solace, was again met with great acclaim in Canada, where "Drawn to the Rhythm" and "Into the Fire" became hits, and the U.S. began to take serious notice. The album marked the beginning of McLachlan's collaboration with producer Pierre Marchand, and as a result, it featured a less hazy and more straightforward sound than Touch.
Following the release of a live album on her Canadian label, McLachlan returned in 1994 with the record that would prove to be her worldwide breakthrough: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. With a striking leadoff track, "Possession," and two balladic singles, "Hold On" and "Good Enough," which also earned significant airplay, the album made a slow but steady climb up the American pop charts. McLachlan toured throughout the year, and before long, the CD had gone multiplatinum. Given the high expectations for Ecstasy's follow-up, McLachlan hedged her bet with the 1995 release of The Freedom Sessions, a mostly acoustic live EP that included performances of songs from Ecstasy, in addition to a few surprises, such as a placid cover of Tom Waits' "Ol' 55" (the song later found its way onto the Boys on the Side soundtrack album).
McLachlan later admitted to another reason for the delay in following up Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: a case of writer's block. While songs may not have been flowing for her in early 1996, McLachlan wasn't hurting for inspired ideas. In reaction to male-dominated summer festivals like H.O.R.D.E. and Lollapalooza, and an honest desire to perform with her peers, McLachlan came up with the idea of an all-female festival tour. Borrowing the name of Adam's mythological wife before Eve, she dubbed the event Lilith Fair, and, along with her partners, began planning for an eight-week, multiact tour in the summer of 1997. The group decided to test the idea by having McLachlan appear on a few triple bills with other female artists, culminating in the first full-fledged Lilith Fair concert on Sept. 14, 1996, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Joining her for the stadium show were Emmylou Harris, Lisa Loeb, Paula Cole, and Michelle McAdorey. In the months following the successful Lilith debut, McLachlan returned to the studio to record a new album that would be released to coincide with the start of the next summer's tour.
Busy as she was, in early 1997, McLachlan found time to sneak in a bit of personal business: In a secret ceremony held on a beach in Jamaica, she and her longtime drummer and musical partner, Ashwin Sood, were married. In keeping with McLachlan's reserved nature, even her contacts at Nettwerk were kept completely in the dark about her plans.
By the spring, McLachlan had lined up an impressive roster of Lilith Fair participants, including Jewel, Sheryl Crow, Tracy Chapman, the Indigo Girls, Joan Osborne, Paula Cole (who probably owes her 1998 Grammy for Best New Artist to the exposure she received from Lilith), and Suzanne Vega to name but a few. "Vulvapalooza," as McLachlan herself jokingly referred to it, landed her and several of her fellow performers on the covers of major magazines. And why not? Not only was the tour a successful musical venture, but a large portion of its proceeds went to charities that benefit underprivileged and abused women. It's estimated that these deserving organizations received more than $600,000 from Lilith Fair contributions.
In July 1997, McLachlan finally released her long-awaited fourth studio album, Surfacing. Kicked off by the single "Building a Mystery" and gorgeously produced by Marchand, the album debuted at No. 2 in the United States, and quickly reached the No. 1 spot in Canada. Surfacing was perfectly timed to ride the wave created by the success of Lilith, and it did, going on to sell more than three million copies in the United States alone, elevating her to a status as one of pop-rock's premier female artists. After the festival wrapped in September, McLachlan mounted her own headlining tour over the last three months of the year. The trek included a Nov. 22 date on Saturday Night Live, made particularly memorable by her hilarious Thanksgiving protest song duet with cast member Ana Gasteyer, "Basted in Blood."
The singer closed out the year and the tour with a date in West Palm Beach, Fla., that was billed a preview of the 1998 edition of Lilith Fair. The one criticism leveled at the 1997 tour was that it had lacked musical and ethnic diversity, and relied too heavily on white singer-songwriters. At the West Palm Beach show, the lineup included Lilith stalwarts the Indigo Girls and McLachlan herself, but also rapper Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliott, alternative rockers Letters to Cleo, and groove-pop heroes Luscious Jackson. In her defense, the Lilith founder had said all along that she sought to embrace musical diversity with the festival, but several artists took at "wait and see" attitude the first year, not expecting the kind of massive acceptance Lilith garnered. The eclectic 1998 lineup should leave no critics grumbling, as it includes Elliott, Erykah Badu, Imani Coppola, N'Dea Davenport, Emmylou Harris, Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, Me'Shell Ndegéocello, and Angelique Kidjo. Co-headlining the tour with McLachlan is Natalie Merchant.
The Lilith matriarch began 1998 with a spring tour, and a stop at the Grammys, where she nabbed two awards: Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Building a Mystery" and Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Last Dance," both from Surfacing. Nearly a year after its release, the album was still going strong; on the eve of this summer's Lilith Fair, she released another single from Surfacing, "Adia," which became her first Top 10 hit in a mere four weeks on the charts. And McLachlan herself shows little sign of slowing down. She's expected to take a break after Lilith winds down in September, but if all goes well, she will mount the Fair one more time in 1999, completing what she has envisioned as a trilogy of tours.
