Bartees Strange and Tori Amos

Amos entered regional talent contests at young age, winning one in 1977, with an original song entitled “More Than Just a Friend”. In her senior year of high school, collaborating with her brother, Mike, she won another contest with the song “Baltimore”. The prize was to have it pressed, just for local family and friends. Her stage name Tori came about when at the age of 21, her boyfriend’s father said that it suited her.

Her solo career happened when her band Y Kant Tori Read didn’t go to plan, but she still had a contract with Atlantic Records in the works. She continued to work on various ideas, and finally came up with the album, “Little Earthquakes”. The album itself is a personal account of her religious upbringing and her identity. The album was released on January 13th 1992 in the UK, and reached #14 initially, but became 2x Platinum in the US. Her sophomore instalment, “Under the Pink” released on January 31st 1994, became her highest charting album in the UK, reaching number 1 in the Albums Chart. It also reached the top twenty in eight other countries, again scoring 2x Platinum status in the US. Her third album “Boys for Pele” released on January 23rd 1996, saw this songstresses’ career grow exponentially, with the chart positions all being marginally higher than the last released. From this album, right though until “Abnormally Attracted to Sin” released on May 18th 2009, Amos, maintained a solid career with each album that she released charting in the same countries, around about the same mark each time.

Her album “Unrepentant Geraldines” released on May 9th 2014, charted globally, reaching number 7 in USA and 13 in the UK. Each album that she would release would of course be accompanied by an international tour too.