Jewel
Early Life
Jewel Kilcher was born May 23rd, 1974, in Payson, Utah, United States. Her father, Atz, is of Swiss-German origin and her mother, Lenedra, of Irish descent. She has two brothers Shane and Atzle. Shortly after her birth the family moved to Homer, Alaska. She began singing at the age of six, regularly performing alongside her father in local bars and tourist attractions to raise money to support the family. After her parents divorce, when Jewel was eight, she remained living in Homer with her father. She started writing songs and learned to play the guitar while at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, where she majored in operatic voice and visual art at the age of seventeen. After leaving high school she moved to San Diego where she was reunited with her mother. Following a number of failed attempts to find a steady job Jewel began doing street performances while living and travelling California in her van. She soon began to develop a loyal fan base at a number of local venues in San Diego such as the Inner Change Coffeehouse and Java Joe's. Jewel got her big break in 1993 when she was spotted performing at the Inner Change by a rep from Atlantic Records.
Career Highlights
Jewel released her debut album, Pieces of You, when she was nineteen on Atlantic Records in 1995. Singles from the album included, "Who Will Save Your Soul", which was initially released in 1995 and re-released in the United States the following year when it became her first hit single, peaking at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. Pieces of You spawned two more hit singles, "You Were Meant For Me" and "Foolish Games", both of which reached # 2 on the Hot 100. The album stayed on the Billboard 200 Chart for over two years, reaching # 4 at its peak. In 1997 she received two Grammy award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Who Will Save Your Soul". The album eventually sold over 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, more than all of her subsequent albums put together.
In November 1998, Jewel released her long awaited second album, Spirit. Spirit debuted at #3 on the Billboard 200 with 368,000 copies sold during the first week of release. The songs "Hands" and "Down So Long" hit the Top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 with the later charting well in the UK and New Zealand, reaching the Top 40 and the Top 20 respectively. A new version of "Jupiter (Swallow the Moon)" was released followed by a remix of "What's Simple Is True", to promote Jewel's debut film Ride with the Devil. In addition, a live version of "Life Uncommon" was released to music stores as a charity single to raise money and awareness for Habitat for Humanity. The album sold over 4 million copies in the U.S. and was followed up by, Joy: A Holiday Collection, which was released in the run up to Christmas in 1999. In November 2001 Jewel released her third studio album, This Way. The album debuted at #9 on the Billboard 200 with first week sales of 140,000 units. Singles included "Standing Still" and "Break Me", which both reached the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks, as well as the title track, which also featured on the soundtrack to the film Life or Something Like It. The fourth and final single, "Serve the Ego", was remixed by Hani Num and Mike Rizzo and became a #1 hit on the Billboard Club and Dance Chart. The album went on to sell over 1.5 million copies in the U.S. and also became her first Top 10 album in Australia where it peaked at #6. In 2003, Jewel made a radical departure from her previous Country/Pop efforts with the release of a more Dance orientated album entitled 0304. 0304 became Jewel's highest debuting album, entering the Billboard 200 at # 2 selling more than 140,000 copies in its first week. The albums lead single, "Intuition", achieved some success in the U.S, reaching #20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard's Hot Dance Club Play chart. Two other singles, "Stand" and "2 Become 1", were released but failed to chart on the Hot 100 reaching #116 and #128 respectively. The album was eventually certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling more than 750,000 copies. On May 2, 2006, Jewel released her sixth album, Goodbye Alice In Wonderland. The album sold 82,000 copies in its first week debuting inside the Top 10 at #8 on the Billboard Albums Chart. The lead single, a double A-Side "Again and Again" and the title track "Goodbye Alice in Wonderland" had moderate success peaking in the Top 20 of Billboards Hot Adult Top 40 Tracks. Two more singles were released from the album, "Good Day" and "Only One Too", but failed to make a impact on the charts. By the end of 2006 the album had only just reached the 250,000 sales mark, making it the first Jewel album not to achieve Gold certification. This was the last album she released on Atlantic Records.
Following the poor sales of her previous effort Jewel returned to her roots with the release of a more Country based album, Perfectly Clear, on Valory Records a division of Big Machine Records in June, 2008. Perfectly Clear debuted at #8 on The Billboard 200 selling 48,000 copies in its debut week. The lead single, "Stronger Woman", was the most successful single peaking at #13 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The album's second single, "I Do", reached # 38 and "Till It Feels Like Cheating", the third and final single to be released, only stayed on the charts for one week debuting and peaking at #57. As of March 2009, the album had sold 221,000 copies in the U.S. and is planned to be released in Europe in the summer of 2009. Jewel also released a album of children’s songs in the U.S. in May 2009 entitled Lullaby. Jewel Discography Albums 1995 Pieces of You | 1998 Spirit | 2001 This Way | 2003 0304 | 2006 Goodbye Alice in Wonderland | 2008 Perfectly Clear | 2009 Lullaby Singles 1996 "Who Will Save Your Soul", "You Were Meant For Me", "Foolish Games" | 1997 "Morning Song" | 1998 "Hands" | 1999 "Down So Long", "Jupiter (Swallow the Moon)", "What's Simple Is True", "Life Uncommon" | 2001 "Standing Still" | 2002 "Break Me", "This Way", "Serve the Ego" | 2003 "Intuition", "Stand", "2 Become 1" | 2006 "Again and Again", "Good Day", "Only One Too" | 2008 "Stronger Woman", "I Do", "Till It Feels Like Cheating" | 2009 "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" Jewel Trivia Jewel Links Babe Invasion | Bestzilla | Celebrity Link | Chickipedia | Famous Hookups | Famous Why | Free Ones | Net Glimse | Perfect People | Sound Unwound | Star Pages | Tera Babes |
