Suzanne Vega

D! Club – Lausanne
www.dclub.ch

Tickets
www.starticket.ch
www.ch.fnacspectacles.com


SUZANNE VEGA
Widely regarded as one of the most brilliant songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega
emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying
herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been labeled contemporary folk or neo-folk songs
of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs. Since the release of her self-titled, critically
acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world's best-known
halls. In performances devoid of outward drama that nevertheless convey deep emotion, Vega
sings in a distinctive, clear vibrato-less voice that has been described as "a cool, dry sandpaperbrushed
near-whisper" and as "plaintive but disarmingly powerful."
Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who "observed the world with a clinically poetic
eye," Suzanne’s songs have always tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real world
subjects. Notably succinct and understated, often cerebral but also streetwise, her lyrics invite
multiple interpretations. In short, Suzanne Vega’s work is immediately recognizable, as utterly
distinct and thoughtful, and as creative and musical now, as it was when her voice was first heard
on the radio over 20 years ago.
Suzanne was born in Santa Monica, CA, but grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West
Side of New York City. She was influenced by her mother, a computer systems analyst and her
stepfather, the Puerto Rican writer Egardo Vega Yunque. There was a heady mix of multicultural
music playing at home: Motown, bossa nova, jazz and folk. At age 11 she picked up a guitar and
as a teenager she started to write songs.
Suzanne studied dance at the High School for the Performing Arts and later attended Barnard
College where she majored in English Literature. It was in 1979 when Suzanne attended a
concert by Lou Reed and began to find her true artistic voice and distinctive vision for
contemporary folk. Receptionist by day, Suzanne was hanging out at the Greenwich Village
Songwriter’s Exchange by night. Soon she was playing iconic venues like The Bottom Line and
Folk City. The word was out and audiences were catching on.
At first, record companies saw little prospect of commercial success. Suzanne’s demo tape was
rejected by every major record company—and twice by the very label that eventually signed her:
A&M Records. Her self-titled debut album was finally released in 1985, co-produced by Steve
Addabbo and Lenny Kaye, the former guitarist for Patti Smith. The skeptical executives at A &
M were expecting to sell 30,000 LP’s. 1,000,000 records later, it was clear that Suzanne’s voice
was resonating around the world. Marlene on the Wall was a surprise hit in the U.K and Rolling
Stone eventually included the record in their “100 Greatest Recordings of the 1980’s.”
1987’s follow up, Solitude Standing, again co-produced by Addabbo and Kaye, elevated her to
star status. The album hit #2 in the UK and #11 in the States, was nominated for three Grammys
including Record of the Year and went platinum. “Luka” is a song that has entered the cultural
vernacular; certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy.
The opening song on Solitude Standing was a strange little a cappella piece, “Tom’s Diner”
about a non-descript restaurant near Columbia University uptown. Without Suzanne’s
permission, it was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA” and bootlegged as “Oh
Susanne.” Suddenly her voice on this obscure tune was showing up in the most unlikely setting
of all: the club. Suzanne permitted an official release of the remix of “Tom’s Diner” under its
original title which reached #5 on the Billboard pop chart and went gold. In 1991 a compilation,
Tom’s Album, brought together the remix and other unsolicited versions of the song.
Meanwhile, Karlheinz Brandenburg, the German computer programmer was busy developing
the technology that would come to be known as the MP3. He found that Vega’s voice was the
perfect template with which to test the purity of the audio compression that he was aiming to
perfect. Thus Suzanne earned the nickname “The Mother of the MP3.”
Suzanne co-produced the follow-up album with Anton Sanko, 1990’s Days Of Open Hand,
which won a Grammy for Best Album Package. The album also featured a string arrangement
by minimalist composer Philip Glass. Years earlier she had penned lyrics for his song cycle
“Songs From Liquid Days.” Continuing to battle preconceptions, she teamed with producer
Mitchell Froom for 1992’s 99.9F. The album’s sound instigated descriptions such as “industrial
folk” and “technofolk.” Certified gold, 99.9F won a New York Music Award as Best Rock
Album.
In 1996, Vega returned with the similarly audacious Nine Objects Of Desire, also produced by
Mitchell Froom, who by then was her husband. “Woman On The Tier (I’ll See You Through)”
was released on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. Over the years, she has also been heard on
the soundtracks to Pretty In Pink (“Left Of Center” with Joe Jackson) and The Truth About Cats
& Dogs, and contributed to such diverse projects as the Disney compilation Stay Awake,
Grateful Dead tribute Deadicated, Leonard Cohen tribute Tower Of Song, and Pavarotti &
Friends. In 1999, The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings Of Suzanne Vega, a volume of
poems, lyrics, essays and journalistic pieces was published by Spike/ Avon Books. In 2001, she
returned to her acoustic roots for her first new album in five years, the critics favorite, Songs In
Red And Gray.
Suzanne’s neo-folk style has ushered in a new female, acoustic, folk-pop singer-songwriter
movement that would include the likes of Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, and Indigo Girls. In
1997, Suzanne joined Sarah McLachlan on her Lilith Fair tour which celebrated the female voice
in rock and pop. She was one of the few artists invited back every year. Suzanne was also the
host of the public radio series “American Mavericks,” thirteen hour-long programs featuring the
histories and the music of the iconoclastic, contemporary classical composers who revolutionized
the possibilities of new music. The show won the Peabody Award for Excellence in
Broadcasting.
In 2007, Suzanne released Beauty & Crime on Blue Note Records, a deeply personal reflection
of her native New York City in the wake of the loss of her brother Tim and the tragedy of 9/11.
But the record is not a sad one, per se, as her love for the city shines through as both its subject
and its setting. In it, Suzanne mixes the past and present, the public with the private, and familiar
sounds with the utterly new, just like the city itself. “Anniversary,” which concludes Beauty &
Crime, is an understated evocation of that time in the fall of 2002, when New Yorkers first
commemorated the Twin Towers tragedy and when Suzanne recalls her brother’s passing. It’s
more inspiration than elegy, though: “Make time for all your possibilities,” Vega sings at the end
in that beautiful, hushed voice. “They live on every street.” Produced by the Scotsman, Jimmy
Hogarth and featuring songs such as “New York is a Woman” and “Ludlow Street,” Beauty &
Crime is that rare album by an artist in her third decade; an album that is as original and startling
as her first. Beauty & Crime won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.
In 2006, she became the first major recording artist to perform live in avatar form within the
virtual world Second Life. She has dedicated much of her time and energy to charitable causes,
notably Amnesty International, Casa Alianza, and the Save Darfur Coalition. Suzanne has a
daughter, Ruby, by first husband Mitchell Froom. Ruby, like Suzanne before her, attends the
High School for the Performing Arts. Suzanne is married to lawyer/poet Paul Mills who
proposed to her originally in 1983. Suzanne accepted his proposal on Christmas Day 2005,
twenty two years later.
Suzanne Vega is an artist that continues to surprise.. A pioneer among singer-songwriters,
Suzanne has embarked on a project to re-imagine her own songbook in a stripped down and
intimate manner, creating 4 new thematic albums that will be released over the course of 2010-
2011 The 4 volumes include
“Love Songs,”
“People, & Places”
“States of Being”
“Songs of Family”


Go back