Tori Amos

Tori Amos' virtuosic musical ability and unique artistic vision made her an icon of modern music. Born in 1963 in Newton, North Carolina, Amos grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. Amos has always experienced chromesthesia, which causes her to see musical patterns as structures of light, and this may have helped her begin teaching herself piano and replicating songs she had heard by ear at the early age of two.

By five, she was the youngest student ever admitted into the preparatory division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She would begin singing and accompanying herself on piano at local bars-always chaperoned by her father-at 13, at which point her family began submitting demo tapes of her own songs to various record labels. She was signed to Atlantic Records in 1984 and released an eponymous album with her then-band, Y Kant Tori Read, in 1988, but it failed to make a commercial impact.

Amos approached her next musical endeavor as a solo artist, resulting in her 1992 solo debut Little Earthquakes, which proved a both commercial and artistic breakthrough. Amos' artistic credentials and devoted fanbase helped her expand her already distinct sound over her forthcoming albums such as Under the Pink, Boys for Pele, and From the Choirgirl Hotel, which found her incorporating musical sounds ranging from harmonium to electronica. She earned accclaim for the 2001 concept albums Scarlet's Walk and The Beekeeper, and even released a classical music record in 2011 with Night of Hunters.

Amos responded to the cultural and political upheaval of the 2016 election with the 2017 album Native Invader. Longtime friends with author Neil Gaiman, Amos recorded a cover of the British standard "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square" for the final credits of the mini-series adapted from the book Gaiman co-authored with Terry Pratchett, "Good Omens" (Amazon, 2019).