Fiona Apple (born Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart on September 13, 1977) is a Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter. Her music is fundamentally based on very personal poetic verses, accompanied by often aggressive and progressive production, rooted equally in early jazz, pop, electronica, and alt-rock.

Early life

Apple is a member of a family with roots in entertainment. Born in New York City, she is the daughter of singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart. Her older sister, Amber Taleullah, sings cabaret under the stage name Maude Maggart. Her half brother Spencer is a director and directed the video for her single "Parting Gift". Her half brother Garett Maggart starred in the TV series The Sentinel. In addition, her maternal grandparents were Millicent Green, a dancer with the George White's Scandals, a series of 1920s musical revues similar to the Ziegfeld Follies, and Johnny McAfee, a multireedist and vocalist of the big band era; her grandparents met while touring with Johnny Hamp and his Orchestra.

Career

Apple's break into the music industry came in 1994, when Apple gave a demo tape of three songs to a friend who was the babysitter for music publicist Kathryn Schenker. Schenker passed the tape along to producer and manager Andy Slater.http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue05/features/fiona.htm Apple's rich alto voice, piano skills and lyrics got the attention of Sony Music executive Andy Slaterhttp://www.the-wallflowers.net/article040200.htm, who signed her to a record deal.

Tidal: 1995–1998

In 1996 Apple's debut album, Tidal, was released by a subsidiary of Sony. The album went on to sell 2.7 million copies "Loyal fans helped free Fiona Apple's CD". Associated Press/MSNBC Entertainment. October 5 2005. and was certified three times platinum in the U.S. "Gold and Platinum Searchable Database". RIAA.com.

"Criminal", the third single, became Apple's breakthrough hit. The song reached the top forty on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and garnered a great deal of attention, in part because of the controversial Mark Romanek-directed music video. While manager Slater says he considered the clip a "tribute to Gregg Araki and [1] Nan Goldin", some found it cynical and exploitative. Years later Apple said: "The shit that got me popular was the stuff that I was not proud of ... I wanted to be like every other girl you see in videos, and that's why it's embarrassing. But the way that I justified treatment is that the song is about someone talking to God about a mistake they've been making ... But I think the thing that screwed it up is how fuckin' horrified I look". Years later, she said that the video fit with the song and that it was "beautiful".

Other singles from Tidal included "Shadowboxer", "Slow like Honey", "Sleep to Dream", "The First Taste" and "Never Is a Promise". After a series of fiery public appearances, Apple's public image began to suffer in some circles. Most notoriously, while accepting the 1997 MTV Video Music Award for "Best New Artist" for "Sleep to Dream", she proclaimed: "This world is bullshit, and you shouldn't model your life on what you think that we think is cool, and what we're wearing and what we're saying", referring to the mainstream music industry. She quoted Maya Angelou: "Go with yourself". Though her comments were generally greeted with cheers and applause at the awards ceremony, the media backlash was immediate.

Some considered her remarks hypocritical, seeing a contradiction between her appearing in a risqué music video in only her underwear, and her telling young women to ignore celebrity culture. She was unapologetic, however: "When I have something to say, I'll fuckin' well say it". Stand-up comedian Denis Leary included a satire of this speech on his album, Lock 'n Load, titled "A Reading from the Book of Apple". Janeane Garofalo parodied Apple's comments in light of the fact that her video for "Criminal" seemed to reinforce the same celebrity fixation on weight and appearance that Apple condemned. Apple, while admitting that she was a fan of Garofalo's, was angry about the seeming hypocrisy as Garofalo had publicly spoken about her own struggles and insecurities with her weight. Apple seemed to feel the bit was a cheap shot at her own physical appearance; Garofalo reportedly replied, "It's comedy. Deal with it".

During this period Apple contributed covers of The Beatles' "Across the Universe" and Percy Mayfield's "Please Send Me Someone to Love" to the soundtrack of the film Pleasantville.

When the Pawn...: 1999–2001

In 1999 Apple's second album, When the Pawn..., was released. Its full title is When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You'll Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You Know That You're Right. The title is a poem Apple wrote after reading the readers' letters that appeared in Spin after an article had cast her in a negative light in an earlier issue.iTunes Originals Interview, 2006 The title's length earned it a spot in the Guinness Book of Records for 2001. However, as of October 2007, it is no longer the longest album title, as Soulwax released Most of the Remixes, a remix album which title surpasses "When the pawn..."'s length by 100 characters Soulwax remixes. The full title of the Soulwax compilation is Most of the remixes we've made over the years except for the one for Einstürzende Neubauten because we lost it and a few we didn't think sounded good enough or just didn't fill in length-wise. But including some that are hard to find because either people forgot about them or simply because they haven't been released yet. A few we really love. One we think is just OK. Some we did for free. Some we did for money. Some just for ourselves without permission and some for friends as swaps but never on time and always at our studio in Ghent..

The album was cultivated during Apple's relationship with film director Paul Thomas Anderson. When the Pawn... received a positive reception from publications such as The New York Times and Rolling Stone, but some music journalists immediately dismissed the album. A review in the aforementioned Spin magazine quoted the title, and then underneath said "Whoops. Now we don't have room for a review. One star".

When the Pawn..., which was produced by Jon Brion, used more expressive lyrics, experimented more with drum loops, and incorporated some Chamberlin. It did not fare as well commercially as her debut, though it was an RIAA-certified platinum album and sold 1 million copies in the U.S. The album's lead single, "Fast as You Can", reached the top 20 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and became Apple's first Top 40 hit in the UK. The videos for two follow-up singles, "Paper Bag" and "Limp" (directed by then-boyfriend Anderson), received very little play.

In 2000, at a concert at the Roseland Ballroom in New York, Apple became dissatisfied with the venue's sound and broke down on stage, berating music critics and the audience with vulgar language, before ending her set early and storming off stage.

Extraordinary Machine: 2002–2006

Apple sang with Johnny Cash on a cover of Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge over Troubled Water" that ended up on Cash's album The Man Comes Around and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Country Collaboration with Vocals". She also collaborated with him on Cat Stevens's "Father and Son", which was included on Cash's 2003 collection Unearthed.

campaigners outside the NYC headquarters of Sony BMG Music Entertainment in January 2005.]]Apple's third album, Extraordinary Machine, was produced by Jon Brion. Recording sessions began in 2002 at Ocean Way studios in Nashville, Tennessee, but later moved to the Paramour in Los Angeles. Work on the album continued until 2003, and in May of that year it was submitted to Sony executives. Sony was reportedly unenthusiastic about the finished product, and the project was shelved for over two years. In 2004 and 2005 tracks were leaked on the Internet in MP3 format and played on U.S. and international radio; subsequently, MP3s of the entire album, believed to have been produced by Brion (although he later claimed the leaked tracks were "tweaked" beyond his own work), went online. Although a website distributing the album was quickly taken offline, they soon reached P2P networks and were downloaded by fans. A fan-led campaign, Free Fiona, was launched in support of the album's official release.

In August 2005 the album was given an October release date. Production had been completed by Mike Elizondo. who had previously played bass on Pawn, and co-produced by electronica experimentalist Brian Kehew. Spin later reported: "Fans erroneously thought that Apple's record label, Epic, had rejected the first version of Extraordinary Machine... in reality, according to Elizondo, Apple was unhappy with the results, and it was her decision to redo the record, not her label's". Two of the eleven previous leaked tracks were relatively unchanged, nine were completely retooled, and one new song was also included. According to Elizondo, "Everything was done from scratch".

Extraordinary Machine became the highest-charting album of Apple's career in the U.S. on its release (debuting at number seven) and was nominated for a Grammy Award for "Best Pop Vocal Album". It was eventually certified gold and sold 462,000 copies in the U.S.,Cohen, Jonathan. "Fiona Taps Rice, Garza For Summer Trek". Billboard. April 19 2006. though its singles ("Parting Gift", "O' Sailor", "Not About Love" and "Get Him Back") failed to enter any Billboard charts.

It was revealed in late 2005 that Sony was initially unhappy with the work, and Apple and Brion sought to rework the album. Sony reportedly made caveats on the process, to which Apple balked. After a long period of waiting, she began an attempt to rework the album with close friend Kehew. Elizondo was brought back as co-producer to complete the tracks he had begun with Brion and Apple. Despite suggestions that the album had caused a rift between Brion and Apple, they regularly perform together at Largo, a club in Los Angeles, including a joint appearance with Elizondo on bass just before the news broke of an official release.

Apple went on a live tour to promote the album in late 2005, and from early 2006 supported Coldplay on their tour of North America.

In June 2006 Apple appeared on the joke track "Come over and Get It (Up in 'Dem Guts)" by comedian Zach Galifianakis. Galifianakis previously appeared in the music video for Apple's "Not About Love". The joke track is a complete departure from Apple's previous work, both lyrically and musically. It is a hip-hop/rap/dance track that features Apple singing lines such as "Baby, show me your fanny pack/I'll show you my fanny". Listen to this come over and get it Perezhilton.com Retrieved on 05-09-07

Apple recorded a cover of "Sally's Song" for the special edition release of the soundtrack, released in 2006, for the Tim Burton-produced film The Nightmare Before Christmas. In May 2006 Apple paid tribute to Elvis Costello on VH1's concert series Decades Rock Live by performing Costello's hit "I Want You"; Decades Rock Live her version was subsequently released as a digital single.

Apple toured the East coast in Late August with Nickel Creek, after which she will begin studio work on her fourth studio album.Hasty, Kate. "Apple, Nickel Creek Teaming For Tour". Billboard. May 18 2007.

Apple is also scheduled to appear at the First Annual GirlFrenzy Festival, which also features Sheryl Crow, Avril Lavigne, and other prominent female artists.Cohen, Jonathan. "Avril, Sheryl, Fiona To Rock First Girlfrenzy". Billboard. August 20 2007.

Personal life

Apple is a vegan and supporter of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). In 1997 she recorded a message on PETA's hotline expressing her concern for the plight of turkeys on Thanksgiving. In reference to a Butterball Turkey hotline people could call to get tips on cooking their turkeys, she claimed, "There's no proper way to kill and cook these beautiful birds". She continued, "Millions of people are learning that a vegetarian diet is the healthy choice for themselves, the Earth, and the animals". This stance inspired the Saturday Night Live spoof "Basted in Blood", written and performed by Cinder Calhoun and Sarah McLachlan during SNL's 1997 Thanksgiving show.

Apple has dated magician David Blaine, film director Paul Thomas Anderson and writer Jonathan Ames.

Discography

Albums

Charting singles

Other recordings

• "Use Me" (Bill Withers) - Live version from Bad Girl, an Apple bootleg recorded at the Phoenix Concert Theater in Ontario (1997)
• "Angel" (Jimi Hendrix) - live version from Bad Girl
• "Sitting in Limbo" (Jimmy Cliff) - live version from Bad Girl
• "Across the Universe" (Lennon/McCartney) - Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Pleasantville (1998, Sony), lead vocalist
• "Please Send Me Someone to Love" (Percy Mayfield) - Soundtrack to the Motion Picture Pleasantville (1998, Sony), lead vocalist
• "Bridge over Troubled Water" (Paul Simon) - duet with Johnny Cash from The Man Comes Around (2002)
• "Father and Son" (Cat Stevens) - duet with Johnny Cash from Unearthed (2003)
• "Frosty the Snowman" - from Christmas Calling (2003)
• "I Want You" (Elvis Costello) - live version from VH1's Live for Decades Rock Live!, released as an iTunes single (2006)
• "Sally's Song" (Danny Elfman) - from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas Special Edition Soundtrack (2006)

Awards and nominations

1997

• MTV Video Music Award for "Best New Artist" for "Sleep to Dream".

1998

• MTV Video Music Award for "Best Cinematography" for "Criminal" (shared with Harris Svides).
• MTV Video Music Award nomination for "Best Female Video" for "Criminal".
• Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for "Criminal".
• Grammy Award nomination for "Best New Artist".
• Grammy Award nomination for "Best Rock Song" for "Criminal".

2000

• California Area Music Award for "Best Female Vocalist" for When the Pawn....

2001

• Grammy Awards nomination for "Best Female Rock Vocal Performance" for "Paper Bag" (nominated), and "Best Alternative Music Album" for When the Pawn.

2003

• Grammy Award nomination for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for "Bridge over Troubled Water" (shared with Johnny Cash).

2006

• Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album for Extraordinary Machine.
• New Pantheon Award nomination for Extraordinary Machine.
• mtvU Woodie "Alumni Award" nomination for Extraordinary Machine.