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Words like kooky and eccentric are often used to describe Tori Amos, but they underplay the extreme depth of her highly individual songwriting and dynamic stage performances. At the age of 14 she was playing piano in bars and when she was 21 she moved from Baltimore to Los Angeles and formed the glam rock band Y Kant Tori Read. When their first album flopped, Amos re-structured her music as a solo singer-songwriter and moved to the UK. This resulted in her striking breakthrough album 'Little Earthquakes', with its startlingly graphic material, highlighted by intensely personal songs like 'Silent All These Years' and 'Me and a Gun', her autobiographical account of being raped. Amos continued to depict the extremes of her life - including relationship break-ups and a series of miscarriages - carving her own niche with her alternative attitude and lifestyle, living in remote Cornwall and recording one album in an Irish church. She explored new territory with each recording and in 1996 she had a UK number one hit with the Armand Van Helden dance remix of 'Professional Widow', a song widely interpreted to be about Courtney Love.After pausing her career to have a family, she recorded a cover album 'Strange Little Girls' in 2001 on which she took songs written by men about women and reversed the perspective. The year after she released 'Scarlet's Walk' followed by 'The Beekeeper' in 2005 and 'American Doll Posse' in 2007. Changing record labels several times, Amos settled with Universal Republic and put out her first release with them in 2009 which was 'Abnormally Attracted to Sin'. In 2011 her music took on a change in direction and she released her first classical-inspired album 'Night of Hunters'. The album featured tracks based on works by Schubert, Debussy, Bach and Chopin and was well-received by critics and fans alike, earning her the prestigious Klassik Ohne Grenzen Prize at the Echo Klassik Awards in 2012. Albums 'Gold Dust' and 'Unrepentant Geraldines' followed in 2012 and 2014 with 'Native Invader' being announced for 2017.Artist biography compiled by BDS/West 10. All rights reserved
