Sarah Ann McLachlan OC OBC (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. As of 2015, she had sold over 40 million albums worldwide.[2] McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards (out of four nominations) and four Juno Awards. In addition to her personal artistic efforts, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians.
She appeared on Saturday Night Live as a musical guest on November 22, 1997, the seventh episode and Thanksgiving show of Season 23, hosted by then-Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani, where she performed "Sweet Surrender" and appeared on the Weekend Update segment.
Abby Elliott as Sarah McLachlan on the November 7, 2009 episode during the Weekend Update segment.
She was also impersonated by then cast member Abby Elliott on the November 7, 2009 episode, the fifth episode of Season 35, with host and musical guest Taylor Swift during the Weekend Update segment.
The signing with Nettwerk prompted McLachlan to move to Vancouver, British Columbia. There she recorded her first album, Touch, in 1987, which received both critical and commercial success and included the song "Vox". During this period she also contributed to an album by Moev, provided vocals on Manufacture's "As the End Draws Near", and embarked on her first national concert tour as an opening act for The Grapes of Wrath.
Her 1991 album, Solace, was her mainstream breakthrough in Canada, spawning the hit singles "The Path of Thorns (Terms)" and "Into the Fire". Solace also marked the beginning of her partnership with Pierre Marchand. Marchand and McLachlan have been collaborators ever since, with Marchand producing many of McLachlan's albums and occasionally co-writing songs.
1993–2000: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Surfacing, and Mirrorball[]
From her Nettwerk connection, her piano version of the song "Possession" was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries.
Following the success from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, McLachlan returned in 1997 with Surfacing, her best-selling album to date. The album earned her two 1998 Grammy Awards, one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "Building a Mystery") and one for Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for "Last Dance"), and four Juno Awards, including Album of the Year for Surfacing and Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for "Building a Mystery". Reaching number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and number two on the US Billboard 200, the album has since sold over 16 million copies worldwide and brought her much international success. Still in the spotlight from the album, McLachlan launched the highly popular Lilith Fair tour. Her song "Angel"—inspired by the fatal overdose of Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin made sales skyrocket. One of the songs from Surfacing, "Full of Grace," features in the Season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Becoming (Part II)", Dawson's Creek's Season 1 episode 4 "Discovery" and the film Moll Flanders (1996 film).
Fellow adoptee Darryl McDaniels was so touched by "Angel" that it inspired him to reassess his life and career. He credits McLachlan and her album Surfacing (on which "Angel" appeared) with saving his life. They have collaborated on many projects in support of the rights of adoptees.
In 1999, McLachlan released a live album, Mirrorball. The album's singles included a new live version of her earlier song, "I Will Remember You", a studio recording of which had previously been released on The Brothers McMullen soundtrack as well as Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff. The song was released as a single twice, once in 1995 where it peaked No. 65 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 in Canada, and again in 1999 at No. 14 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 in Canada. The 1999 version garnered McLachlan her third Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for "I Will Remember You") in 1999.
In 1998, the motion picture City of Angels featured "Angel". The soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard chart. More than five months after the film disappeared from the theatres, the soundtrack remained firmly entrenched among Billboard's top 40 albums and earned quadruple-platinum status.
In 1999, McLachlan recorded the Randy Newman song "When She Loved Me" on the Toy Story 2 soundtrack as the off-screen singing voice of the character Jessie. This song was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2000, and McLachlan performed it at the awards ceremony, but she didn't win.
2006: Wintersong[]
In October 2006, McLachlan released a Christmas album, Wintersong. The album included 11 new recordings, featuring covers of Joni Mitchell's "River", Gordon Lightfoot's "Song for a Winter's Night", and John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", which she recorded with her outreach children and youth choir, and seasonal favourites: "Christmas Time Is Here", "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", "Silent Night", "The First Noel", and "Greensleeves (What Child Is This?)", among others. The title track is an original work of McLachlan's.
Wintersong debuted at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 album chart the week ending November 4, 2006. It peaked at No. 7. Worldwide the album has sold over 1.1 million copies to date. It has been certified Platinum in the U.S. and 2× Platinum in Canada, where it became her third consecutive album to reach number one.
Wintersong was nominated for both a Grammy Award, in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, as well as for a Juno Award, for Pop Album of the Year.
On October 3, 2006, the live album Mirrorball was re-released as Mirrorball: The Complete Concert.
2014–2015: Shine On[]
In late January 2014, McLachlan announced the release of her next studio album, Shine On, which was inspired by the death of her father. It was her first release on Verve Records, after leaving Nettwerk/Arista after over twenty years. The album was released on May 6, 2014.
In March 2014 McLachlan announced a schedule for a Shine On tour across the United States, which began in Seattle on June 20, 2014. The tour visited 30 cities all together. The Canadian leg of the tour was to include 25 shows in 21 cities.
On May 14, 2014, it was announced that Shine On debuted at No. 4 on the US Billboard charts, with 42,000 copies.
In March 2015, McLachlan won a Juno for Adult Contemporary Album of the Year for Shine On.
2016–present: Wonderland[]
On October 21, 2016, McLachlan released Wonderland, her ninth studio album and second Christmas album. Wonderland contains interpretations of 13 traditional and contemporary holiday classics.
McLachlan performed at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24 as well as NBC's annual Christmas in Rockefeller Center special on November 30. She also performed on ABC's CMA Country Christmas Special on November 28, Live with Kelly! on December 8 and Harry TV on December 16.
McLachlan released the single "The Long Goodbye" in December 2016.
In January 2019, McLachlan was announced as the host of the Juno Awards of 2019.
In a February 2019 interview, McLachlan stated that she was set to debut a new song titled "Wilderness" during her then-current tour.[31]
In 2023, she participated in an all-star recording of Serena Ryder's single "What I Wouldn't Do", which was released as a charity single to benefit Kids Help Phone's Feel Out Loud campaign for youth mental health.