Alannah Myles (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Byles; born December 25, 1958) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who has won both a Grammy and a

Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...

for the song " Black Velvet". The song was a top-ten hit in Canada and a number one hit on the US ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1990.

Early life

Myles was born Alannah Byles on Christmas Day, 1958 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

. She is the daughter of William Douglas Byles, a pioneer in the Canadian broadcasting industry who was inducted into the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in 1997. She is the second of five children. Raised by her parents in Ontario, Myles spent her childhood composing and learning music. Myles began writing songs around age 9 and performed in a songwriting group for the Kiwanis Music Festival in Toronto at age 12.

Career

At the age of 18, she began performing solo gigs in southern Ontario, eventually meeting Christopher Ward, a recording artist and songwriter with

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

. With Ward's help, she formed her own band and performed cover versions of rock and blues songs while polishing her own material. Myles changed her surname from Byles at the age of 19 after deciding to pursue a career in entertainment. Appearances in TV commercials paid for music demos that led to numerous rejections in Canada until she recorded masters for three songs; "Who Loves You" and a video demo for "Just One Kiss", directed by photographer Deborah Samuel. With matched financing from her songwriting collaborator, MuchMusic ( City TV) and program director Christopher Ward, she signed her first record contract with Atlantic Records in 1987. Myles was featured in several TV and film productions as a guest host and actor prior to becoming a recording artist. She appeared in a 1984 episode of the television series ''

The Kids of Degrassi Street ''The Kids of Degrassi Street'' is a Canadian children's television series created by Kit Hood and Linda Schuyler. The first entry in the ''Degrassi'' franchise and the only one to focus on children instead of teenagers, it follows the lives of a ...

'', in which she played the role of an aspiring singer and single mother. In 1989, she appeared in an episode of '' War of the Worlds'', which aired only three weeks after the release of her self-titled debut album. Myles was a candidate to be the original host of FashionTelevision, as shared by Jeanne Beker on the ''Reinvention of the VJ'' podcast, hosted by Erica Ehm. Beker suggested that Ward was lobbying for Myles to get the role on the new TV program. Beker would eventually become the program's first host. In late 1987, Warner Music Canada's director of

artists and repertoire Artists and repertoire (or A&R for short) is the division of a record label or music publishing company that is responsible for scouting, financing, and overseeing the artistic development of recording artists and songwriters. It also acts as a l ...

(A&R), Bob Roper, sent Myles's three-song video package to all of

's US affiliates, which garnered a contract for seven or eight years from Atlantic Records (WMG), given by head of A&R Tunc Erim and Atlantic label founder Ahmet Ertegun. Myles left her acting career and co-wrote and recorded the remainder of her first album with Christopher Ward and producer David Tyson. In May 1989, Warner Music in Canada released ''Alannah Myles'', which produced four

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

hits, including " Love Is", "Lover Of Mine", "Still Got This Thing" and her number-one classic rock hit, " Black Velvet". It was ineligible for Grammy nominations until the early 1990 US single release "Black Velvet" became a number-one hit, claiming ASCAP's most played song on radio for 1989 and 1990. By 2005, it had received ASCAP Millionaire Award for over four million radio airplays.About
at AlannahMyles.com; published 2007; via archive.org "Black Velvet" won Myles the Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance in 1991 and three Juno Awards. The album was the first debut album from a Canadian artist to be certified Diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association for sales of over one million units, and was reported to have sold more than six million copies internationally. In 1992, Myles was nominated for a second Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for her second CD '' Rockinghorse''. "Song Instead Of a Kiss", written and composed by Myles, Nancy Simmonds, and Canadian poet Robert Priest, was a 60-piece orchestrated ballad that reached number one on several radio stations around the globe but was met with little response in America, whose audiences were accustomed to "that slow southern style" of "Black Velvet". The album, released that year, included the other hit singles "Our World, Our Times", and "Sonny, Say You Will". Myles received a Grammy nomination for ''Rockinghorse'' and several global awards, including a Juno and Much Music's People's Choice Award for "Our World, Our Times". In 1991, Myles sang " O Canada" at a

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

game at Skydome in

. It was broadcast on

CBS Sports CBS Sports is the American sports programming division of Paramount Global that is responsible for sports broadcasts carried by its broadcast network CBS and streaming service Paramount+, as well as the operator of its cable channel CBS Sports N ...

. In 1995, Myles released her final album on Atlantic Records before being released from the label, granting Warner/Atlantic a ''Best Of'' CD after only three records. The ''A-lan-nah'' album, which contained no Top 40 singles, included two tracks which made it into the Top 100, namely "Family Secret" and "Blow Wind, Blow". In 1997, she terminated her eight-record contract with

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

with the help of her then-manager Miles Copeland III, who immediately signed her to his own Ark 21 Records. On Ark 21, she released ''A Rival'', which contained the Top 40 hit "Bad 4 You", written and recorded by Myles, Desmond Child, and Eric Bazilian at Copeland's Castle songwriting retreat at Grand Brassac, France. The ''A Rival'' album agreement with Miles Copeland III, Ark 21 Records was successfully terminated in 2014 with 100% copyright reversions returned to ''Alannah Myles'' by 2015 and re-released on Myles's independently owned label, Fascinate inc. After the release of ''A Rival'', Myles released two ''Best Of'' compilations, in 1998 and 2001, and both featuring two new songs, and then left Ark 21 Records. She maintained a low profile for almost a decade but gigged around Canada and Europe during this time. In 2001, Myles duetted with

Saga Sagas are prose stories and histories, composed in Iceland and to a lesser extent elsewhere in Scandinavia. The most famous saga-genre is the (sagas concerning Icelanders), which feature Viking voyages, migration to Iceland, and feuds between ...

frontman Michael Sadler on a cover of Peter Gabriel and

Kate Bush Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer. Bush began writing songs at age 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape. In 1978, at the ...

's " Don't Give Up", released as a B-side to the Saga single "Money Talks". In 2004, she released a cover of " I Can't Stand the Rain", with Jeff Healey on guitar, for a

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939 – May 24, 2023) was a singer, songwriter, actress, and author. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", her vocal prowess, raspy voice, and electrifyin ...

tribute album ''What's Love? A Tribute to Tina Turner''. In February 2005, together with the Swedish band Kee Marcello's K2, Myles participated in the third semi-final of

Melodifestivalen Melodifestivalen (; ) is an annual song competition organised by Swedish public broadcasters Sveriges Television (SVT) and Sveriges Radio (SR). It determines the country's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest, and has been staged almo ...

, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Their selection, "We Got It All", scored very few points and finished seventh out of eight songs, yet it managed to dominate the leading newspaper and media headlines in Sweden. Myles' first new solo release in a decade was an Elvis Tribute EP, released on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

in August 2007, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death. The EP features a re-recording of her signature song "Black Velvet", as well as two new songs. All three of them were later included on her next album. In April 2008, Myles released her fifth studio album, ''Black Velvet'', which featured a new recording of her song of the same name, in addition to 10 new studio recordings. Myles financed and co-produced the album. In early 2008, Myles released the CD ''Black Velvet'' on Linus Entertainment, which resulted in a staggered release internationally while the indie label merged with Canada's True North Records, followed by a video for the song "Trouble" featuring a jug band performance. "Trouble" was awarded an 'Honourable Mention' as a finalist in the blues category at the 2009 International Songwriting Contest. Myles won the 15th annual USA Songwriting Competition for both Best Rock/Alternative Song as well as grand prize finalist for a selection, written and composed jointly with Nancy Simmonds for her ''Black Velvet'' CD, titled "Give Me Love". Myles' song "Black Velvet" was one of four selected to be covered on the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

reality television show '' Cover Me Canada.'' After terminating a six-year lease with Canadian indie label Linus Entertainment in August 2013, Myles' ''Black Velvet'' album was retitled ''85bpm'', repackaged for her 25th anniversary with new images photographed by fellow Canadian Deborah Samuel. A newly recorded song written by Anne Peebles, produced by Michael Borkosky, "Can't Stand the Rain" was added to ''85bpm'', featuring a solo played by Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey, re-released on Myles' independently owned label, Fascinate inc., digitally distributed by Tunecore.com, with audio CDs and a 25th anniversary live concert DVD, both distributed by Amazon.com in the US.

Discography

* '' Alannah Myles'' (1989) * '' Rockinghorse'' (1992) * '' A-lan-nah'' (1995) * ''Arival'' (1997) * ''Black Velvet'' (2008) * ''85 BPM'' (2014)

Awards and nominations

{, class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" , - ! scope="col" , Award ! scope="col" , Year ! scope="col" , Nominee(s) ! scope="col" , Category ! scope="col" , Result ! scope="col" , , - !scope="row" rowspan=2, AMOA Jukebox Awards , rowspan=2, 1990 , Herself , Rising Star , , rowspan=2, , - , rowspan=2, " Black Velvet" , Pop Record of the Year , , - !scope="row" rowspan=2, Canadian Music Video Awards , 1990 , Most Popular Female Video , , rowspan=2, , - , 1993 , "Our World, Our Times" , People's Choice: Favourite Female Artist , , - !scope="row" rowspan=2, Grammy Awards , 1991 , " Black Velvet" , rowspan=2, Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female , , rowspan=2, , - , 1993 , '' Rockinghorse'' , , - ! scope="row" rowspan=9, Juno Awards , rowspan=4, 1990 , " Love Is" , rowspan=2, Single of the Year , , rowspan=9, , - , " Black Velvet" , , - , '' Alannah Myles'' , Album of the Year , , - , rowspan=2, Herself , Most Promising Female Vocalist , , - , 1991 , Canadian Entertainer of the Year , , - , 1993 , " Song Instead of a Kiss" , Single of the Year , , - , rowspan=2,

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

, '' Rockinghorse'' , Album of the Year , , - , rowspan=2, Herself , rowspan=2, Female Vocalist of the Year , , - ,

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

, , - !scope="row" rowspan=2, MTV Video Music Awards , rowspan=2, 1990 , rowspan=2, " Black Velvet" , Best New Artist in a Video , , rowspan=2, , - , Best Female Video ,

References

External links

* *
Alannah Myles
biography on ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...