Tori Amos

As I previously wrote, I am dedicating an entry to each artist I saw live at Primavera Sound 2015.

After writing about Einstürzende Neubauten and Babes in Toyland, today it is about Tori Amos.

I cannot remember exactly, but it was in the mid-to-late 1990s when I listened to "Crucify" for the first time. It had been included in a cassette tape that a pen pal from Germany had recorded for me with her favorite music. It became a favorite instantly and it led me to dig into her work through the next years.

Tori Amos is an American singer-songwriter, pianist and composer of Eastern Cherokee ancestry. She was born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22nd, 1963 in Newton, North Carolina.

At age 5, she won a full scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory (Baltimore, Maryland). She was the youngest person ever to have been admitted. She was expelled at age 11 for insisting on playing by ear and because of her interest in rock and popular music. At age 13 and chaperoned by her father, she began playing at gay bars and piano bars.

She co-wrote a song called "Baltimore" with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" single that was pressed locally in 1980. It included another Amos-penned composition as a B-side: "Walking with You."

At age 21, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the DC area. In 1986, she formed a band: Y Kant Tori Read. The name made reference to her aforementioned days at the Peabody, where she was never successful at reading sheet music. In 1988, their self-titled debut album was released through Atlantic Records, but it was a failure and the group subsequently disbanded. Two singles were released and one, "The Big Picture," had a music video:

Having still to fulfill her contract with Atlantic Records, she went solo and started a successful career while releasing the following albums:

• Little Earthquakes (1992).
• Under the Pink (1994).
• Boys for Pele (1996)
• From the Choirgirl Hotel (1998)
• To Venus and Back (1999)
• Strange Little Girls (2001)

She then signed to Epic Records and published these three albums:

• Scarlet's Walk (2002)
• The Beekeeper (2005)
• American Doll Posse (2007)

After that, she has been releasing several albums up to today through different labels:

• Abnormally Attracted to Sin (2009)
• Midwinter Graces (2009)
• Night of Hunters (2011)
• Gold Dust (2012)
• Unrepentant Geraldines (2014)

She has received eight Grammy nominations.

Since she went solo, she has toured extensively throughout the years. Sometimes it is just her on the piano; sometimes she is accompanied by a full band.

But she had never happened to visit Barcelona (Catalonia) until May 30th, 2015. It was a flawless show with her and the piano. A short set, but an intense one. A dream come true...

I can't wait to see her live again!