Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos; 22 August 1963) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist, recognised for her classically trained mezzo-soprano voice. A child prodigy, she entered the preparatory division of the Peabody Institute at age five but left at eleven, later developing her skills performing in bars in Washington, D.C. Amos was the lead singer of the 1980s pop-rock group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving a solo breakthrough in the early 1990s. Her music often explores themes including sexuality, feminism, politics, and religion.
Amos’s early singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", "Flavor" and "A Sorta Fairytale". She has received multiple nominations, including five MTV Video Music Awards and nine Grammy Awards, and won an Echo Klassik award for her classical crossover album "Night of Hunters". She was listed at number 71 on VH1’s 1999 "100 Greatest Women of Rock and Roll".
Amos was born in Newton, North Carolina, and grew up primarily in Baltimore, Maryland. She began playing piano and composing music at an early age, displaying an ability to reproduce music by ear and a form of synesthesia, seeing sounds as visual patterns of light. At thirteen, she began performing in piano bars and gay bars. Her first single, "Baltimore", was released locally in 1980. She adopted the stage name Tori after a friend compared her to a Torrey pine.
Amos’s career began with the band Y Kant Tori Read, whose self-titled 1988 album was commercially unsuccessful. She then pursued a solo career, releasing "Little Earthquakes" (1992), her breakthrough album, followed by "Under the Pink" (1994).
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