 BIOGRAPHY
QUICK FACTS:
Born: Tuesday, August 29 1972 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Parents:Doug and Gencie Marshall, Amanda is an only child
Current residence: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Albums: Amanda Marshall (1995), Tuesday's Child (1999),
Everybody's Got A Story (2001)
Amanda's success in music is largely due to her parents.
From enrolling her in Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music
at the age of three, and insisting she record herself singing
and to never stop singing.. to accompanying her to bars for
open mike night at the age of 15, their encouragement and
support was a huge factor in determining whether or not
Amanda would make it in the business.
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They also played a role in shaping Amanda's musical influences. Their music constantly floating around the house, Amanda grew up listening to her mother's calypso and her father's North American contemporary artists.
Amanda says of her influences, " A mish mash of rock, jazz, folk, and R'n'B "
When Amanda moved on from the Conservatory in her teens, she immediately immersed herself in music other
than classical. At the age of 15, she was introduced to jazz by a friend, and her interest in the music was fuelled even more so after a backstage meeting with the legendary Ella Fitzgerald.
Amanda at this age also decided to dive into the club scene in order to test out her vocal powers and gain some valuable experience. Not only that, but she could also be found standing up singing to the 1,000 plus population
at her high school, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute.
At the young age of 17, Amanda was introduced to someone that became a huge mentor. A friend and Amanda
had purchased tickets to a Jeff Healey concert, and managed to get backstage after the show. Upon meeting
Jeff, Amanda expressed her interest in music and her desire to someday do something with that interest. Jeff
asked Amanda to sing a couple of tunes, and immediately impressed, volunteered for her to join him at a local bar the next night, who would be having an open mike night (It was also Jeff's birthday that night:) Amanda, thrilled, brought her dad down to the bar the next night and sang several songs, with Jeff accompanying her on the guitar.
Lucky for us, Jeff saw the talent Amanda had, and helped her out big time. He suggested to Amanda that she
round up several musicians in the Toronto area, and continue playing the bar scene to help her get her bearings.
Amanda had such success, and within months she had a band together and began doing just what Jeff suggested.
During this time, Amanda enrolled in night school at the University of Toronto, taking an English program. A few months later however, she realized it wasn't for her, and dropped out to focus her energy on her musical career.
Jeff Healey soon came back into the picture and offered Amanda something she couldn't resist: "Jeff offered me an opening slot on his national tour that was going across Canada and down into the United States. I went out with him and the next thing I knew with no record or record deal, I was singing in front of thousands of people every night, and it was huge deal. Fortunately for me at that point, I didn't really realize what a big deal it was, so I wasn't intimidated. It was still fun for me. That's how I got started. About six months later I got a record deal and I started making a record."
Amanda first signed to Columbia Records at the young age of 19, but backed out of the deal after a few months, not feeling ready quite yet.
However, Amanda found her place with Sony Music Canada at the age of 21.
Amanda Marshall Quick Facts:
Canadian Release date: October 1995
Copies Sold: 1.1 Million in Canada (Diamond status), approx. 1 Million more worldwide
Lead Single: Birmingham
At the age of 23, Amanda released her first album.
This debut saw Amanda with writing credits on only 3 of the 10 ten songs, Dark Horse, Sitting on top of the world, and Let's Get Lost. As Amanda was still young and gaining experience with writing songs, she says she put all of
her energy into choosing songs that she felt would show where she was at that point. And she did a great job.
The album was a hit- spawning 7(!) singles, all of which made it to the top 10(!) in Canada: Let it rain, Birmingham,
Fall from grace, Dark horse, Beautiful goodbye, Sitting on top of the world, and Trust me (this is love)
Right now I ask you to name an album you own that had 7 singles released from it. Pretty hard, huh.:)
The event that really made Amanda known to the world came from an interview on TV Rosie O'Donnell was having with the incomparable Elton John.
Amanda woke up one morning to the hysterias of her mother on the phone... Elton John was on The Rosie
O'Donnell show, saying that his current favorite album was none other than hers. Elton had picked up her album
by chance at the import bins in an HMV in London, and really liked it, saying that "Dark Horse" was his favorite.
After these comments from none other than Elton John himself, what could the show do (and the rest of the
world) but take note? The producers of the show quickly scrambled together to sign up Amanda to appear on the show. Amanda says of the compliments: "It was depressing. I couldn't eat for weeks. What, are you kidding me?
It was like a blessing from the Pope. I was ecstatic"
Well, Amanda did appear on the Rosie O'Donnell show. She sang Elton's pick 'Dark Horse', and did an interview
with Rosie.
That day she sold 10,000 copies of her album.
"Rosie is amazing. She's one of the few talk show hosts who really is a music fan. She has people on her show because she really digs their records, and she's great to talk to. I loved doing the show. "
Amanda also fielded a call from Elton himself while she was having dinner in Banff, Alberta. Elton commented his favorite songs were ones that she had written herself, which gave Amanda much needed encouragement to write more songs herself on the next album.
Tuesday's Child Quick Facts:
Canadian Release Date: May 1999
Copies Sold: 300,000 in Canada. 200,000 worldwide
Lead Single: Love Lift Me
"Tuesday's Child" was the much anticipated followup to Amanda's debut.
It created five singles: Love Lift Me, Believe In You, If I Didn't Have You- all of which were Top 40 hits, along with Shades of Grey and Why Don't You Love Me.
Even though Tuesday's Child may not seem that different from her first album, it really is. Amanda co-wrote 12 of the 13 songs, which really broke her out of the box and allowed her to discover what up until now had been unfamiliar territory.
Most of Tuesday's Child was written with Eric Bazilian (Joan Osborne, The Hooters) at his home base in
Philadelphia. Amanda flew down there on a recommendation from a friend, to see if they would hit it off and could possibly write songs together. After the two attended a Rolling Stones concert, Tuesday's Child was in the making.
After approximately 6 months of writing a record filled with issues Amanda was dealing with at the time, Tuesday's Child was completed and ready to be recorded.
Amanda feels most proud of the songs If I Didn't Have You and Shades of Grey, mostly because If I Didn't Have
You took the longest to write, while Shades of Grey conveys a strong message and is directly autobiographical
(Amanda's mother is from Trinidad, her father white Canadian)
Tuesday's Child was somewhat written on the basis of a journal Amanda kept with her on the extensive tour and media she experienced in her first four years in the music business. She wrote down anything remotely inspiring,
or interesting. Eric and Amanda worked from there, Amanda fiddling around with tunes on the piano, and Eric on guitar.
Although Eric and Amanda co-wrote most of the album, artists like Desmond Child and Carole King also appeared.
Besides writing and singing on the record, Amanda is also found displaying her talents as a pianist on the songs 'Believe In You', 'Love Lift Me', 'If I Didn't Have You', 'Ride', and 'Never Said Goodbye'
"I play enough piano and guitar to embarass myself"
The Tuesday's Child era consisted of constant touring; Amanda made a very concentrated effort to get out there
and sing her songs as much as she could. She embarked on a cross-Canada sold-out tour, and after that
headed down south to the States and overseas to Europe (25 cities) where she sang at every possible festival, her own shows, and even opened up for Whitney Houston in the process. After this exhaustive time, Amanda headed
back to Canada a year later where she toured across the nation one more time before needing a break.
Everybody's Got A Story Quick Facts:
Canadian Release Date: November 13, 2001
Copies Sold: 200,000 in Canada + the rest of the world
Lead Single: Everybody's Got A Story
Everybody's Got A Story came after a substantial break from the whirlwind of Tuesday's Child, which involved
almost 2 years of constant touring and promotion. Amanda finished touring in May 2000, and immediately shied
out of the spotlight. Taking some time to herself, Amanda was able to decompress, and think about what was
really important to her.
This chance to reflect gave Amanda a clear focus on what she wanted to say, and how she wanted her next
record to sound.
Peter Asher and Billy Mann were the producers behind Everybody's Got A Story, and along with New York DJ Molecules, the four created the sounds on the record. Amanda knew Peter Asher and though him, was introduced to Billy. Hailing from New York, Billy has an amazing collection of songs by mega-superstars to his name, some of which include Celine Dion and Melissa Etheridge.
The first day Amanda and Billy got together to "collaborate on some songs", and the two had a conversation that sparked the idea for the concept of the new album. Discussing celebrity and the whole notion that your never
really know about people sprung the first song written for the new album, the title track. Amanda was so
impressed with this concept they came up with, she decided the rest of the album should take shape around that idea, and it did.
Besides achieving this theme, Amanda also set out to share more of herself and personality with her audience.
"This is probably the closest people have seen of me...This record sounds like me. It sounds like the way I talk,
the way I think"
The album was written late March/early April of 2001, all in a couple of weeks time. When the first single, the title track, was released to radio airwaves in mid-September 2001 it shot up the charts, getting Amanda yet another
Top 40 Hit to add to her list, although this one you can call a Top 5 hit;)
The single and the album have really begun to turn a lot of things around for Amanda, in my opinion. Tuesday's
Child received mild critical and commercial success, many critics said it was victim of the sophomore effect. Everybody's Got A Story however is turning heads, as it rightly should be. Amanda has grown substantially in
regard to her writing abilities, and the new album is more original, thought-provoking, and explores its theme creatively. So far the reception has been warm, and the success the singles and the new album has received are showing it.
After 3 short weeks of its Canadian release, the album went platinum (100,000 copies sold).
Sunday Morning After went to radio in January 2002 and generated a lot of interest in the album again, and
got people interested in her upcoming tour with it's catchy chorus and funny lyrics.
And the story continues..!
>>Miscellaneous info:
Amanda grew up in Toronto and still lives there today, but she can also claim she was a Maritimer at one point in her life. Amanda and family relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia when she was about 11 years old, and lived there until
she was 14, when they moved back to Toronto.
The first concert she ever attended was The Pointer Sisters at Massey Hall in Toronto at the age of 9.
Amanda's nickname in highschool (Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute) was 'The Radio'-as she would never stop humming or singing:)
Amanda is left handed and she is about 5 feet 4 inches tall
Amanda has a long-time boyfriend of 10 years, Rob Misener. He is her touring bassist, and the two wrote "Marry
Me" together.
For good luck, Amanda and family eat black eyed peas and rice at the stroke of midnight on New Years Eve
Amanda's dad is a sales executive and her mother is a private school administrator
Amanda enjoys running and boxing to keep her in shape
Her first big check was apparently spent on a couple of paintings
Leanne Rhimes covered and named one of her tours after Amanda's song "Sitting on top of the world"
Amanda has been known to pick up a guitar on the songs "Sitting on top of the world" and "Last Exit to Eden"
Has appeared on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show", "The David Letterman Show", "Regis and Kathy Lee", "Good Morning America," "Extra", "VH-1" , "MTV", "Canada AM", "The Mike Bullard Show", "The Dini Petty Show", and "The Vicki Gabereau Show"
Amanda has been featured in magazines such as TV Guide, Seventeen Magazine, People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Flare and Modern Woman.
Amanda has had such complimentors as Jon Bon Jovi, Elton John, John Mellencamp and Joan Rivers (haha).
Chantal Kreviazuk, the Philosopher Kings, Roberta Michelle, and Jordy Birch have opened for Amanda's shows
Amanda has opened for: Jeff Healey, Tom Cochrane, Colin James, John Mellencamp, Whitney Houston, and has
also appeared alongside Tears for Fears and Simply Red.
While on tour with John Mellencamp, Amanda was known to accompany John for the encore "Pink Houses". While opening for Whitney, the diva was so impressed with Amanda's voice she also brought the blonde one onstage for a couple of duets.