Loreena McKennitt

Self-managed, self-produced and the head of her own record label, award-winning "eclectic Celtic" singer/songwriter Loreena McKennitt has sold nearly ten million records worldwide. Her recording history, which now spans a decade and a half, includes six full-length studio albums and a two-album live recording.

Born and raised in the small prairie community of Morden, Manitoba, Canada, McKennitt won the DuMaurier Search For Talent in 1978, represented her country that year at UNESCO in Paris and again in 1985 at Expo in Japan. In the 1980s, she moved to Stratford, Ontario - home of Canada's renowned Shakespeare Festival - and was featured in a number of festival productions including The Tempest (1982) and The Two Gentlemen Of Verona (1984) as an actor, singer and composer. In spring 2001, she returns to the Festival as composer for Richard Monette's production of The Merchant Of Venice.

In 1985, Loreena recorded her debut album, Elemental, and released it on her fledgling label, Quinlan Road, named for the rural road which ran past her farmhouse. Two more albums in 1987 and 1989 and a flourishing live performance career garnered increasing attention, and she signed a ground-breaking distribution deal with Warner Music Canada in 1991. Its first fruit, The Visit, would become an international success whose tally of gold and platinum certifications were exceeded only by The Mask And Mirror in 1994 and, to an even greater degree, the worldwide hit The Book Of Secrets.

The Book Of Secrets, recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Wiltshire, spawned the Billboard Top 20 single and MTV video hit "The Mummers' Dance", whose cross-format success at US radio was mirrored around the world. The album would go on to sell over four million copies worldwide. Like its two predecessors, the album topped the Billboard World Music chart en route to becoming that chart's most successful "crossover" album ever. It also debuted at #1 on the national album charts in Greece and Turkey, #3 in Canada, and reached the Top 10 in Italy, New Zealand and Germany, and the Top 20 in the United States, Spain and France.

McKennitt has twice been honoured with a Juno, the Canadian music industry's annual award. In 1997, she was also given Billboard's International Achievement Award. To date, she has received gold, platinum and multi-platinum certifications in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.

She has composed music for, or had songs featured in, a wide range of films. Her credits include the National Film Board Of Canada's Women And Spirituality series and Jean-Claude Lauzon's Léolo, as well as Hollywood productions including Jade, Highlander III, The Holy Man, Soldier and The Santa Clause. Recently, she recorded a Spanish version of "Dante's Prayer" for use in A House With A View Of The Sea, a Canadian/Venezuelan co-production slated for release in 2001. Her work has also been featured in television series as diverse as Northern Exposure, Due South, Legacy, EZ Streets, Boston Public, Big Kevin Little Kevin and Strange Luck. A 1997 30-minute documentary about Loreena McKennitt and her music, No Journey's End, has been widely shown on public television in both the United States, and further afield.

In 1999, Loreena McKennitt released her most recent recording, Live In Paris And Toronto, a two-CD set recorded with her band at the Salle Pleyel and Massey Hall. A charitable project, the album raises funds for The Cook-Rees Memorial Fund For Water Search And Safety, a Canadian-based organisation founded by Loreena McKennitt and the families of Ronald and Richard Rees and Greg Cook after the three men perished in a boating accident in Georgian Bay in 1998.

The daughter of a nurse mother and a livestock trader father, songstress Loreena McKennitt studied classical piano and vocal training and learned to dance in the highland style as a youngster. Her love of traditional music was strengthened in the folk clubs of Winnipeg, which she frequented during the brief period she studied veterinary science at the University of Manitoba. Relocating to Stratford, Ontario, she continued to sharpen her skills as a composer and performer. In 1981, she auditioned for a role in the city's Stratford Festival of Canada. Although she did not get the role, she remained inspired. After reading Diane Sward Rapaport's book -How to Make and Sell Your Own Recording, she formed her own label, Quinlan Road. After releasing two albums, a nine-song cassette, Elemental, in 1985, and a collection of Christmas tunes, To Drive the Cold Winter Away, in 1987, she had her first breakthrough with her 1989 album, Parallel Dreams. Distributed through a network of small, independent distributors, the album sold more than 40 thousand copies within four months. Its success was surpassed by McKennitt's fourth album, The Visit. Distributed by Warner Canada, the album sold over 600,000 copies (six times platinum) in Canada and received a Juno Award (Canada's equivalent of the Grammy), as did McKennitt's next recording, The Mask and Mirror, in 1994.

While her albums have featured soothing, ultra-melodic arrangements, McKennitt's lyrics have reflected her interests in the poetry of W.B. Yeats, William Blake, and Alfred Lord Tennyson. McKennitt's music has been heard on the soundtracks of numerous plays and films. In 1989, she was commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada to compose the music for a film series, Woman and Spirituality. Her subsequent commissions include such films as Jade, Highlander III, and Disney's the Santa Clause, as well as TV shows including Northern Exposure, Due South, and EZ Streets.

In 1998, McKennitt scored her biggest hit with "The Mummers' Dance." She became a hit in America, allowing The Book of Secrets to sell more than four million copies. Sadly, her world crumbled that July when her fiancé, Ronald Rees, died while on a sailing trip with his brother and a family friend in Georgian Bay. Everything immediately stopped in order for McKennitt to grieve. Rumors of her retirement also circulated. At the time of her fiancé's death, McKennitt was mixing a new album, Live in Paris and Toronto, at Peter Gabriel's Real World studios. Recorded in Salle Pleyel in Paris and Massey Hall in Toronto during spring 1998, the album was released in 1999. All profits from the album have gone to the Cook-Rees Memorial Fund, which McKennitt set up to finance water safety initiatives and education across Canada.

During the new millennium, McKennitt allowed herself some healing time. She didn't disappear from music altogether, however, and worked with a number of local and national charities. Her Spanish version of "Dante's Prayer" was featured in the Canadian/Venezuelan feature film A House with a View of the Sea in 2001. In 2002 she headlined a concert in Winnipeg for Queen Elizabeth and, in 2003, received the Order of Canada. Two years later, McKennitt began work on her seventh studio album, Ancient Muse, which was released in 2006. Nights from the Alhambra, a live CD/DVD arrived the following year. ~ Craig Harris, All Music Guide