Tori Amos

She is a good friend of author Neil Gaiman. His name was mentioned in her song ‘Tear in Your Hand’.

This prolific artist supports Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), a toll-free help line in the US, connecting callers with their local rape crisis center. Proceeds from a concert held on her 50th Birthday were sent to RAINN.

Tori Amos was born on August 22, 1963, in North Carolina, to Mary Ellen and the Reverend Edison Amos. She began to play the piano when she was two and had started composing by five. After receiving scholarship, she joined the Preparatory Division of the ‘Peabody Conservatory of Music’

By the age of 11, she had developed a taste for rock and pop music and refused to read sheet music. Following her expulsion, she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.

In 1977, she won a county teen talent contest singing ‘More Than Just a Friend’. After establishing herself in the piano player in the Washington D.C., she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in music.

In 1986, she established a music group known as ‘Y Kant Tori Read’, commemorating her days at the Peabody Conservatory.

In 1988, the Y Kant Tori Read's self-titled debut album was released. After the album bombed, she began working as a backup vocalist for other leading artists. Around that time, she wrote ‘Distant Storm’ for the film ‘China O'Brien’. In the credits, the song is attributed to a band called, ‘Tess Makes Good’.

Contractual obligation led her to record her breakthrough album ‘Little Earthquakes’, in 1992.

Her album ‘Under the Pink’, released in 1994, charted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and was nominated for a ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ at Grammy.

In 1998, her album ‘From the Choirgirl Hotel’ was released; the album didn’t incorporate Amos’s trademark piano-based music. The debut sales exceeded 153,000 copies in its first week. The album received a Grammy nomination in the ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ category.

In 1996, she released ‘Boys for Pele’, an album that incorporated complex baroque music, which was nominated for a ‘Best Alternative Music Album’ at Grammy. Its transatlantic release reached number 2 on the Billboard 200 and the UK Top 40.

‘The Beekeeper’, released in 2005, and the following album ‘American Doll Posse’, released a couple of years later both debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200. These two releases cemented her place in an elite group of female recording artists who have successfully secured five or more US Top 10 album debuts.