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Jewel Kilcher (born May 23, 1974) is an
American Grammy Award-nominated singer, songwriter,
actress, poet and philanthropist, generally known just
by her first name, Jewel.
Early years: Jewel was born in Payson, Utah, to
Atz Kilcher, of Swiss-German origin, and Lenedra
Carroll. She is the cousin of actress Q'Orianka Kilcher.
She spent most of her young life in Homer, Alaska,
living with her father. The home she grew up in did not
have indoor plumbing; it had a simple outhouse instead.
She and her father sometimes earned a
living by singing in bars and taverns. It was from these
experiences she learned to yodel, a quality demonstrated
in many of her songs. Her father was a Mormon, but they
stopped attending the church shortly before she turned
eight. Yule Kilcher, her grandfather, was a state
senator involved in drafting Alaska's constitution for
its admission into a state from a territory in 1959.
During high school, Jewel was known to spell her name
"Jule" or "Juel," but she attributes
this to simply playing with her name.
Jewel learned to play the guitar while on scholarship at
the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen,
Michigan, where she majored in operatic voice. She
started writing songs at the age of seventeen.
For a time, she was poverty-stricken and lived in her
van while traveling about the country busking and doing
small gigs. She gained some recognition by singing at
the Innerchange Coffeehouse and Java Joe's in San Diego,
California. Her friend Steve Poltz's band, The Rugburns,
played the same venues. Jewel later collaborated with
Poltz on some of her songs, including "You Were
Meant For Me." (He also appeared in the second,
best-known, video for this song.) The Rugburns opened
for Jewel on her Tiny Lights tour in 1997. Poltz
appeared in Jewel's band on the Spirit World Tour 1999
playing guitar.
Music career: In 1993, Flea of the rock band Red
Hot Chili Peppers met Jewel after he saw her perform at
a local cafe. He went back to her van where she was
living, where she sang a few of her songs to him. He
described her singing voice as being
"beautiful" and "breathtaking". It
was at these coffeehouse appearances that she was
discovered by Atlantic Records.
She cut her debut album, Pieces of You,
when she was nineteen and it was released in 1995. The
album stayed on the Billboard 200 for an impressive two
years, reaching number four at its peak. The album
spawned the Top 10 hits "You Were Meant for
Me", "Who Will Save Your Soul" and
"Foolish Games." The album was a huge success
and eventually sold over 12 million copies in the U.S.
alone, more than all of her subsequent albums put
together.
Peak: Due to her success, she was chosen to sing
the national anthem at the opening of the Super Bowl in
January 1998.
In November 1998, Jewel released her second album,
Spirit. The album peaked at #3 on the Billboard 200 and
sold over 4 million copies in the U.S. The songs
"Hands" and "Down So Long" hit the
Top 10. Other singles followed, a new version of
"Jupiter (Swallow The Moon), "What's Simple Is
True", the theme song to her upcoming movie, and
the charity single "Life Uncommon".
A year later, In November 1999, Jewel released her
holiday album, Joy: A Holiday Collection. The album sold
over a million copies and peaked at #32 on the Billboard
200. She released a cover of "Joy to the
World" from the album.
In November 2001, the album This Way was released. The
album peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200 and sold over 1
million copies in the U.S., standing as her most
critically acclaimed album to date. Jewel hit the Top 10
with the song "Standing Still" and the Top 40
with the song "Break Me". Other singles
released were "This Way" and "Serve The
Ego", the latter giving Jewel her first number one
club hit.
Late career: In 2003 Jewel released her album
0304. She writes in her liner notes, "I wanted to
make a record that was a modern interpretation of big
band music. A record that was lyric driven, like Cole
Porter, that also had a lot of swing. And a lot of it is
thanks to Lester, because when I told him I wanted to
make a record that combined dance, urban and folk music,
he didn't look at me like I was crazy." While some
fans considered 0304 an innovative album that held to
the tradition of her previous albums, others felt that
it was too much of a change from the style of her older
albums.
Following the limited failure of "Serve the
Ego", Jewel moved to a more pop-oriented sound with
the release of her single, Intuition. The song, which
strays from her usual folk style with simple guitar
instrumentation, starts off with a French accordion and
experiments with pop beats using synthesizers.
The song was successful, reaching #5 on
the Billboard Adult Top 40. However, a number of Jewel's
fans criticized her for abandoning her traditional folk
style in exchange for a new pop sound. Accusations of
"selling out" for personal gain, among other
things, were made. Despite the different sound style,
the song is lyrically similar to her previous work. It
has a number of references to culture, including
mentioning celebrities such as pop star Jennifer Lopez,
model Kate Moss, magazines, film culture and
commercialism.
On May 2, 2006, Jewel released her sixth album, Goodbye
Alice In Wonderland. The album received mixed reviews,
but still managed to debut at #8 on the Billboard Albums
Chart. The album sold 82,000 copies in its first week
out. The lead single "Again and Again" has had
moderate success on Top 40 Radio, peaking at #16. The
second single, "Good Day", was released to
radio in late June but failed to gain any traction on
the radio airplay charts. Recently, a video for
"Stephenville, TX", her next single, has been
seen on Yahoo! Launch.
As of December 2006, the album barely sold 270,000
copies. It is notable in that it is the only Jewel album
to not achieve Gold certification.
Currently, Jewel has released a video for the new song
"Quest for Love" as the lead single from the
new movie Arthur and the Invisibles. The song is only
available on the soundtrack for Arthur and the
Invisibles, which was released January 2007.
In early February 2007, Jewel made a promotional
appearance on the T in Boston for the Verizon Yellow
Pages, playing songs on a moving subway car and then
doing a small acoustic concert in South Station. In an
interview with the Boston Globe, Jewel confirmed that
she is no longer affiliated with a record label,
confirming rumors that Atlantic Records failed to renew
her contract after the lackluster sales of her latest
album. She also hinted that she would like to do a
country album next.
Film and theater: Jewel starred in the 1999 Ang
Lee film Ride with the Devil. Jewel also starred as
Dorothy in the 1995 "Dreams Come True"
production of "The Wizard of Oz" (available on
VHS). |
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