Tori Amos

Myra Ellen Amos was born on August 22, 1963, in Newton, North Carolina. Her family relocated to Baltimore, Maryland, when she was two years old. Amos began playing piano at two and a half and was composing her own songs by age three. At five, she was accepted into the preparatory division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, becoming its youngest-ever admitted student. She studied classical piano from 1968 to 1974 before her scholarship was discontinued at age eleven, partly due to her interest in rock and popular music and her reluctance to read sheet music. After leaving Peabody, Amos started performing in gay and piano bars in Washington, D.C. with her father as her chaperone.

In 1986, Tori Amos formed the pop-rock band Y Kant Tori Read, releasing their self-titled debut album in 1988. Following the band’s dissolution, Amos pursued a solo career, signing with Atlantic Records. Her solo debut, “Little Earthquakes,” released in 1992, marked a significant artistic and commercial breakthrough, entering the British charts at No. 15 and gaining traction in the U.S. with the single “Silent All These Years.” This was followed by “Under the Pink” in 1994, which reached No. 12 on the Billboard 200 and No. 1 in the UK, solidifying her status. She continued to release critically and commercially successful albums throughout the 1990s and 2000s, including “Boys for Pele” (1996), “From the Choirgirl Hotel” (1998), and “To Venus and Back” (1999). Her album “Scarlet’s Walk” (2002) achieved gold status from the RIAA. Amos has consistently explored diverse musical styles, from electronica, on albums like “From the Choirgirl Hotel,” to classical-style music on “Night of Hunters” (2011) and orchestral re-imaginings on “Gold Dust” (2012).

Amos has been recognized for her contributions to music, receiving fifteen MTV VMA nominations and nine Grammy Award nominations, winning an Echo Klassik Award for “Night of Hunters.” She has also made an impact off-stage as the first national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) in 1994, drawing from her own experience as a survivor of sexual assault. Her career spans decades of touring, with over 1,000 shows since 1992, known for her unique and evolving setlists. Recent works include “Ocean to Ocean” (2021) and the upcoming children’s book and companion album, “Tori and the Muses” (2025), and “In Times of Dragons” (2026), demonstrating her continued artistic evolution and engagement with a wide range of topics.