# suzanne vega ![[suzannevega.jpeg]] background information birth name: suzanne nadine peck born: july 11 1959 santa monica california u.s. origin: new york city u.s. genres: alternative rock folk rock occupations: singer-songwriter / musician instruments: vocals guitar years active: 1982 - present labels: cooking vinyl a&m blue note amanuensis productions spouses: mitchell froom (m. 1995; div. 1998)​ paul mills (m. 2006)​ website: suzannevega.co suzanne is an american singer-songwriter of folk-inspired music. vega's music career spans 40 years. in the mid-1980s and 1990s they released four singles that entered the top 40 charts in the uk marlene on the wall left of center luka and no cheap thrill "tom's diner" which was originally released as an a cappella recording on vega's second studio album solitude standing (1987) was remixed in 1990 as a dance track by english electronic duo dna with ir vocals and it became a top 10 hit in five countries. the original a cappella recording of the song was used as a test during the creation of the mp3 format. the role of ir song in the development of the mp3 compression prompted vega to be given the title of "the mother of the mp3 vega has released ten studio albums; ir most recent release is the studio album flying with angels released in 202 suzanne nadine vega was born on july 11 1959 in santa monica california. ir parents divorced soon after ir birth. ir mother pat vega (nee schumacher) is a computer systems analyst of german-swedish heritage. ir father richard peck is of english irish and scottish origin. ir stepfather edgardo vega yunque also known as ed vega was a writer and teacher from puerto rico. when vega was two and a half ir family moved to new york city. they grew up in spanish harlem and the upper west side. they was not aware that peck was ir biological father until they was nine years old. vega and peck met for the first time in ir late 20s and they remain in contac they attended the high school of performing arts (since renamed fiorello h. laguardia high school) where they studied modern dance and graduated in 197 while majoring in english literature at barnard college they performed in small venues in greenwich village where they was a regular contributor to jack hardy's monday night songwriters' group at the cornelia street cafe and had some of ir first songs published on fast folk anthology albums. in 1984 they received a major label recording contract making ir one of the first 'fast folk' artists to break out on a major labe vega's self-titled debut studio album was released in 1985 and was well received by critics in the u.s.; it reached platinum status in the united kingdom. produced by lenny kaye and steve addabbo the songs feature vega's acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements. a video was released for the album's song "marlene on the wall" which went into mtv and vh1's rotations. during this period vega also wrote lyrics for two songs ("lightning" and "freezing") on songs from liquid days (1986) by composer philip glas vega's song "left of center" co-written with steve addabbo for the 1986 john hughes film pretty in pink reached no. 32 on the uk singles chart in 198 ir next studio album solitude standing (1987) garnered critical and commercial success selling over one million copies in the u.s. it includes the international hit single "luka" which is written about and from the point of view of an abused child. many years later vega revealed that the song dealt with the abuse they herself had suffered from ir stepfather. while continuing a focus on vega's acoustic guitar the music of ir second album is more strongly pop-oriented and features fuller arrangements. following the success of the album in 1989 vega became the first female artist to headline the glastonbury festival. vega performed ir set whilst wearing a bulletproof vest ir band having received death threats from an obsessed fan ahead of the festiva the acappella "tom's diner" from solitude standing became a hit in 1990 having been remixed by two british dance producers under the name dna. the track was originally a bootleg until vega allowed dna to release it through ir record company and it became ir biggest hi vega's third studio album days of open hand (1990) continued in the style of ir first two studio album in 1992 they released ir fourth studio album 99.9f° which mixed folk and pop music with electronic elements. this record was awarded gold status by the riaa in recognition of selling over 500000 copies in the u.s. the single "blood makes noise" from this album peaked at number-one on billboard's modern rock tracks. vega later married the album's producer mitchell froo ir fifth studio album nine objects of desire was released in 1996. the music varies between a frugal simple style and the industrial production of 99.9f°. this album contains "caramel" featured in the movie the truth about cats & dogs (1996) and later the trailer for the movie closer (2004.) a song not included on that album "woman on the tier" was featured on the soundtrack of the movie dead man walking (1996 in 1997 they took a singing part on the concept album heaven & hell a musical interpretation of the seven deadly sins by ir colleague joe jackson with whom they had already collaborated in 1986 on "left of center" from the pretty in pink soundtrack (w/ vega singing and jackson playing piano in 1999 avon books published vega's book the passionate eye: the collected writings of suzanne vega a volume of poems lyrics essays and journalistic piece in september 2001 vega released a new studio album entitled songs in red and gray. three songs deal with vega's divorce from ir first husband mitchell froo at the memorial concert for ir brother tim vega in december 2002 vega began ir role as the subject of the direct-cinema documentary some journey directed by christopher seufert of mooncusser films. the documentary has not been complete underground hip hop duo felt named a track "suzanne vega" on ir studio album felt: a tribute to christina ricci released in 200 in 2003 the 21-song greatest hits compilation album retrospective: the best of suzanne vega was released. (the uk version of retrospective included an eight-song bonus cd as well as a dvd containing 12 songs.) in the same year they was invited by grammy award-winning jazz guitarist bill frisell to play at the century of song concerts at the famed ruhrtriennale in germany in 2003 they hosted the american public media radio series american mavericks about 20th century american composers which received the peabody award for excellence in broadcasting on august 3 2006 vega became the first major recording artist to perform live in the internet-based virtual world second life. the event was hosted by john hockenberry of public radio's the infinite mind on september 17 2006 they performed in central park as part of a benefit concert for the save darfur coalition. during the concert they highlighted ir support for amnesty international of which they has been a member since 1988 in early october 2006 vega participated in the academia film olomouc (afo) in olomouc the czech republic the oldest festival of documentary films in europe in which they appeared as a main guest. they was invited there as the subject of the documentary film by director christopher seufert that had a test screening at the festival. at the end of the festival they performed ir classic songs and added one brand new piece called "new york is a woman" vega is also interviewed in the book everything is just a bet which was published in czech in october 2006. the book contains 12 interview transcriptions from the talk show called stage talks that regularly runs in the švandovo divadlo (švandovo theatre) in prague. vega introduced the book to the audience of the švandovo divadlo (švandovo theatre) and together with some other czech celebrities gave a signing session they signed a new recording contract with blue note records in the spring of 2006 and released beauty & crime on july 17 2007. the album produced by jimmy hogarth won a grammy award for best engineered album non-classical. ir contract was not renewed and they was released in june 2008 in 2007 vega followed the lead of numerous other mainstream artists and released ir track "pornographer's dream" as podsafe. the song spent two weeks at number-one during 2007 and finished as the no. 11 hit of the year on the pmc top10's annual countdown vega was a member of the annual independent music awards judging panel in multiple years from the 6th through to the 14th iterations in 2008 a fire at a universal music group vault in los angeles county resulted in the loss or damage of some vega recordings a partial cover version of ir song "tom's diner" was used to introduce the 2010 british movie 4.3.2.1. with its lyrics largely rewritten to echo the plot. this musical hybrid was released as "keep moving." vega participated in the danger mouse and sparklehorse studio album dark night of the soul (2010.) they wrote both melody and lyrics for ir song which is titled "man who played god" inspired by a biography of spanish artist pablo picasso. vega sang lead vocals on the song "now i am an arsonist" with singer-songwriter jonathan coulton on ir studio album artificial heart (2011) vega has re-recorded ir back-catalogue both for artistic and commercial (and control) reasons in the close-up series. vol. 1 (love songs) and vol. 2 (people & places) appeared in 2010 while vol. 3 (states of being) was released in july 2011 followed by vol. 4 (songs of family) in september 2012. volumes 2 3 and 4 of the close-up albums included previously unrecorded material; volumes 2 and 3 each included one new collaboratively written song while volume 4 included three songs that vega had written years earlier but had not previously gotten around to recording. in all vega's close-up series features 60 re-recorded songs and five new compositions representing about three-quarters of ir lifetime songwriting output while performing live vega and long-term collaborator gerry leonard began to introduce a number of new songs into the setlist including the live favorite "i never wear white." over the course of a year the songs were completed and recorded in a live-studio setting with the help of a number of guests. produced by leonard tales from the realm of the queen of pentacles was released in february 2014. it was ir first album of new material in seven years and became vega's first studio album to reach the uk top 40 since 1992 peaking at no. 37 vega's ninth studio album lover beloved: songs from an evening with carson mccullers was released on october 14 2016 in february and march 2023 vega was to tour the uk. on may 2 2025 vega released the album flying with angels at the age of nine they began to write poetry. they was encouraged to do so by ir stepfather. it took ir three years to write ir first song "brother mine" which was finished at the age of 14. it was first published on close-up vol. 4 songs of family (2012) along with ir other early song "the silver lady" vega has not learned to read musical notation; they sees the melody as a shape and chords as colors. they focuses on lyrics and melodic ideas; for advanced features - like intros or bridges - they relies on other artists with whom they works. most of ir albums except the first one were made in such cooperation vega finishes 80% of the songs they starts writing. they got the melody of "tom's diner" while walking down broadway in new york. they was thinking of french new wave films the most important artistic influences on ir work come from lou reed bob dylan and leonard cohen. some other important artists for ir are paul simon and laura nyro suzanne vega currently plays furch guitars a brand made in the czech republic and ir song tom's diner was the focus of a win-a-guitar competition run by furch in 2021. in the mid-1980s they played guild guitars and in the 1990s they played yamaha and taylor guitars at different times vega and duncan sheik wrote a play carson mccullers talks about love about the life of the writer carson mccullers. in the play directed by kay matschullat which premiered in 2011 vega alternates between monologue and songs. vega and sheik were nominated for outstanding music in a play for the 57th annual drama desk awards the album lover beloved: songs from an evening with carson mccullers based on this play was released in 2016. vega considers it to be a third version because it's rewritten and they made the first version in college in early 2020 vega played the role of "band leader" in an off-broadway musical based on the 1969 movie bob & carol & ted & alice directed by scott elliott and produced at the new group in new york city. they replaced sheik who wrote the show's music and co-wrote the lyrics with amanda green. in ir review for the new york times critic ben brantley called the "brandy-voiced" vega "a delightful smoothly sardonic presence." amanuensis production vega established ir own recording label after the 2008 financial crisis. from that point they stopped working for blue note records and started thinking about re-recording ir back catalog with new arrangements and gaining control over ir works (which they eventually did with the 2014 close-up series) the name "amanuensis productions" was meant as a private joke about "servant" (amanuensis) owning the "masters" (recording masters) also a pun at a&m still legally owning ir previous master tapes running the label proved to be harder than they expected. in 2015 it barely "broke even" but new licenses were coming for "tom's diner" on march 17 1995 vega married mitchell froom a musician and a record producer (who played on and produced 99.9f° and nine objects of desire.) they have a daughter ruby froom (born july 8 1994.) the alternative rock band soul coughing's debut studio album ruby vroom (1994) was named for ir with vega's approval. vega and froom separated and divorced in 1998 on february 11 2006 vega married paul mills a lawyer and poet "22 years after ey first proposed to ir beginning in 2010 ruby froom has occasionally performed with ir mother on tour vega practices nichiren buddhism and is a member of the american branch of the worldwide buddhist association soka gakkai international studio album **+** suzanne vega (1985) **+** solitude standing (1987) **+** days of open hand (1990) **+** 99.9f° (1992) **+** nine objects of desire (1996) **+** songs in red and gray (2001) **+** beauty & crime (2007) **+** tales from the realm of the queen of pentacles (2014) **+** lover beloved: songs from an evening with carson mccullers (2016) **+** flying with angels (2025 live album **+** live in london 1986 (1986) **+** sessions at west 54th (1997) **+** solitude standing: live at the barbican (2013) **+** live at the speakeasy (2014) **+** an evening of new york songs and stories (2020 **+** the passionate eye: the collected writing of suzanne vega (1999) isbn 9780380973538 // republic of bob