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Loreena McKennitt
Self-managed, self-produced and the head of her own record label, award-winning "eclectic Celtic" singer/songwriter Loreena
McKennitt has sold nearly ten million records worldwide. Her recording history, which now spans a decade and a half, includes six
full-length studio albums and a two-album live recording.
Born and raised in the small prairie community of Morden, Manitoba, Canada, McKennitt won the DuMaurier Search For Talent in 1978,
represented her country that year at UNESCO in Paris and again in 1985 at Expo in Japan. In 1985, Loreena recorded her debut album,
Elemental, and released it on her fledgling label, Quinlan Road, named for the rural road which ran past her farmhouse. Two more
albums in 1987 and 1989 and a flourishing live performance career garnered increasing attention, and she signed a ground-breaking
distribution deal with Warner Music Canada in 1991. Its first fruit, The Visit, would become an international success whose tally
of gold and platinum certifications were exceeded only by The Mask And Mirror in 1994 and, to an even greater degree, the worldwide
hit The Book Of Secrets.
The Book Of Secrets, recorded at Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios in Wiltshire, spawned the Billboard Top 20 single and MTV video
hit "The Mummers' Dance", whose cross-format success at US radio was mirrored around the world. The album would go on
to sell over four million copies worldwide. Like its two predecessors, the album topped the Billboard World Music chart en route
to becoming that chart's most successful "crossover" album ever. It also debuted at #1 on the national album charts in
Greece and Turkey, #3 in Canada, and reached the Top 10 in Italy, New Zealand and Germany, and the Top 20 in the United States,
Spain and France.
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