April, 1997

Publication title: Flare, vol. 19, Iss. 4, pg. 109
Place: Toronto
Writer: Unknown

Women who rock

At the hyper – hip opening of M.A.C’s new store on Paris’s Left Bank, gossip circulates through the room like champagne — dry, deliciously sinful, savoured slowly. But the real excitement is on the street, where that most unlikely of divas, k.d. lang, arrives in a stretch limousine. The waiting crowd divides.

Despite what the industry refers to as her aversion to the hype machine, there hovers around k.d., whether here or front row at Prada’s Miu Miu collection in New York, what in the biz is called the buzz — a current that moves an artist from obscurity to notoriety, an energy that propels an act from dingy bars and run – down taverns in Consort and Cape Breton to packed stadiums in London and Los Angeles. It’s what record companies live by and musicians die for.

In 1996 close to 15,000 hopefuls sent demos to Canada’s top six record companies. Only about a dozen signed contracts. A smaller fraction still will make diamond (one million sold) in this country. In Canadian recording history, only 10 records have reached that pinnacle. Five of those were from female artists and all five were awarded in the last six years. The buzz has begun.

I’m from Calgary. Home of the Calgary Stampeders, the Calgary Flames, the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.” There are 1,550 people packed into Toronto’s Convocation Hall for an invite – only show by Jann Arden. “We expected to play to an audience of about 30 tonight,” she remarks dryly. “I take it you guys aren’t Pearl Jam fans.” Across town, that band is kicking off a world tour. Tonight, Arden is giving the last performance in a 36 – month tour — one that has taken her across Canada three times, Europe twice and into the States and has made living under june (A&M Records) five times platinum (500,000 copies) in Canada and gold (500,000 copies) in America.

As we move towards the end of the decade, audiences have witnessed the rise of a trio who have created a new, female firmament: Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion, Shania Twain. Together they represent an unsurpassed sales force. Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill (Maverick) broke records in both the U.S. and Canada for bestselling debut album. At its peak, it was selling almost a million copies a month. It’s no wonder, then, that at this year’s Juno awards all three received inaugural awards for International Achievement — a category created in their honour.

But the success of an artist cannot be measured by sales alone. k.d.lang’s All You Can Eat (Warner Music), released last year, sold little more than 50,000 copies in Canada and Ingenue (Sire) stalled at double platinum (200,000 copies) in 1993. Respectable, yes, but not record – breaking. Still, notoriety follows lang. As an outspoken lesbian, animal rights activist, M.A.C viva Glam model/spokesperson and sometime Vanity Fair covergirl, the Consort, Alta. native has engendered a cult of personality — a weather vane for the winds of social change.

land and others, like Dion, Twain, Morissette and Arden are paving the way. But there are more. The buzz in the biz is about a new breed of women who rock.

Ivana Santilli is not a large woman. The Toronto native has a delicate face sitting atop an almost fragile neck. In conversation, her voice is soft, gentle. And then she laughs — a huge laugh that booms through the room causing mirrors to rattle in their casings — and picks up her trumpet to demo a few notes with a ferocity that could silence Goliath. Ivana Santilli is not a large woman. She is a powerful one.
The sole woman in the band, Santilli adds her “all that jazz” trumpet and full voice to the funk/hip hop/eastern/pop fusion that is Bass Is Base. Their sound mirrors their members; Santilli’s band mates, Pranam “Chin” Injeti and Roger “Mystic” Mooking, contribute their own cultural references to the sauce. It’s a unique sound and one that caught the attention of this country’s music hawks. After the band’s independent release, First Impressions For The Bottom Jigglers, they received more than half a dozen offers before accepting A&M/Island/Motown.

But big talent belies sales to date. Though the band won both the Juno for best R&B soul recording and MuchMusic Video Award Soul/R&B video (for Diamond Dreams) in 1996, sales of Memories of the SoulShack Survivors remain just shy of gold (50,000 copies sold). And last year’s news that their U.S. distributor had folded now has the band shopping for another deal down there. But that’s not bothering Santilli. She’s got big plans: the big time.

In the run – down, dingy warren of corridors that is ABC New York, a retinue forms outside dressing room 2. The manager, the tour manager, the radio publicist, the television publicist, the dresser, the makeup artist, the photographer, the reporter — all banished. They’re bored, making time, making small talk. And then she begins. Inside, Toronto’s Amanda Marshall begins her scales, sliding up and down an octave. Outside, the eight listen spellbound, captivated by the husky hum of a warmup. The manager breaks the silence. “Wait until she does Birmingham. She’ll blow them away.”

That morning on the set of Good Morning America, and later on the Rosie O’Donnell show, she does, prompting fellow guest Elton John to call her the greatest thing to come out of “America.” Already almost gold there, her self – titled debut album (Epic/Sony Music) is platinum five times over here at home.

It’s been a long time coming. Though only 23 years old, Marshall has already racked up a long resume of singing credits, including opening for Jeff Healey, Colin James and Tears For Fears on their most recent tours. Her own album was two years in the making; she waited for just the right songs and it shows. As she lauches into Birmingham, Good Morning America’s sound man, unprepared for the balls of her bravura, hurries to adjust levels. Swinging her Botticelli – esque mane of blond waves, she is rising.

Jane Siberry has crafted a career making all matter (from clouds to grains of sand) her muse in musical elegies that masterfully mix the real with the surreal. Her second album, fittingly entitled No Borders Here (Windham Hill/A&M), made her a name all over the map, bringing her to the attention of auteurs like director Wim Wenders (who has used Siberry songs on two movie soundtracks) and Peter Gabriel (who used Siberry material on three of his other worldly tributes to the fourth world in his Real World series of discs). Six albums later, Siberry has steered her art into the next frontier – cyberspace – making her latest record, Teenager (Sheeba), which was released in accordance with the lunar cycle, available only through the Internet (www.shee – ba.ca) and confirming her place in the world of multimedia.

The Canadians have arrived: Alanis Morissette, Celine Dion, Shania Twain. At the Grammys, the American Music Awards, the Billboard Awards, they embody a Canadian invasion. Morissette’s momentum remains unchecked; her record – breaking debut album, Jagged Little Pill (on Madonna’s Maverick label), surpassed 14 million in sales in the U.S. and two million in Canada. Her country counterpart is Twain, whose Woman In Me (PolyGram) became the bestselling female country album of all time both here and in American markets. And Dion, the only artist in Canadian history to achieve two consecutive diamond records – Falling Into You and The Colour Of My Love (Sony) – has made record – breaking a pop pastime.

Do you know that Linda Ronstadt song? Love…”
Love Has No Pride?”
Yes. It’s one of my…”
It’s my favourite song, too.”
I must know…”
All the words? Me too.” (Begins singing.)
That’s it. Keep going.” (Begins picking out the chords on the piano.) Enter harried makeup artist, urgently attempting to apply lipstick on moving targets. Offstage, photographer patiently waits for songwriters to finish bonding and turn their attention to him.

If you’d witnessed the first – time meeting of two of Canada’s pre – eminent songwriters (for the purposes of this photo shoot), you’d know the true meaning of the word synergy. Between them, Amy Sky (left) and Shirley Eikhard have inked several hundred songs and been recorded by close to 80 artists. Eikhard’s (Let’s Give Them) Something to Talk About, recorded by Bonnie Raitt, is perhaps her star song, while Sky’s works have been recorded by Melissa Manchester, Heart, Olivia Newton – John and, most recently, Anne Murray and Aaron Neville. Accomplished singers as well as songwriters, Sky’s Cool Rain (Iron Music/BMG) and Eikhard’s sixth album If I Had My Way (Denon) have won both media and audience attention. Now if we could just get theirs.

Sarah McLachlan reclines in the plush arms of a velvet chair in a sleek downtown – Vancouver bar. The photographer wanders outside and down the street in search of caffeine. McLachlan’s mind wanders too. Drifting. In fact, exploring. For in the neverland of McLachlan’s imagination, her mind plays licks and words flow, becoming symphonic when paired with her classically trained “poperatic” voice.

It’s always been this way. Discovered while singing with a new wave band in her native Nova Scotia at 17, she signed with Vancouver’s Nettwerk Records at 19 and at 20 released Touch, a lush lyrical and musical tapestry that mesmerized both the music world and the masses. Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, released in 1993, sold more than three million copies worldwide. For the summer, she is planning a 35 – city North American concert tour with an all – star, all – girl lineup possibly including Neneh Cherry, Emmylou Harris, Patti Smith and Lisa Loeb. Some are calling it Chickapalooza, but she’s calling it Lilith Fair, for the biblical Adam’s first wife. And in Sarah McLachlan’s evolving musical landscape, this is a welcome no – man’s – land.

When soulstress Deborah Cox’s demo tape landed on the desk of Clive Davis, the pantheonic owner of the legendary Arista label (also home to Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton and Aretha Franklin), he was captivated. And for good reason. It is a voice which dips down to the depths of Dionne, hip hops to the heights of “Miss Ross” and belts the bellicosity of Aretha. Without hesitation, Toronto – born Cox was signed and the former backup singer for Celine Dion was put into a studio with some real Motown muscle — including Dallas Austin, who has produced Madonna, and Babyface, of Mariah Carey fame.

But that’s ancient history. Since the 1995 release of Deborah Cox, the album has gone platinum (100,000 copies) in Canada and gold (500,000 copies) in the U.S. and Cox is readying herself for the release of her next record this spring.