Rita MacNeil
Rita MacNeil (born May 28, 1944 in Big Pond , Nova Scotia , † April 16, 2013 in Sydney , Nova Scotia) was a Canadian folk and country singer and songwriter .
Live and act
Rita MacNeil was born in Big Pond, a village of around 50 people in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality . Her parents were Neil and Catherine (Rene) MacNeil, who had three sons and five daughters. Rita MacNeil, their fifth child, was born with a cleft palate that was later surgically corrected. She grew up in a financially and socially unstable environment. She dropped out of high school at the age of 17 and moved to Toronto , where she began performing as a folk singer in clubs and writing song lyrics, although she had never received professional musical training and could not write notes. She earned her living doing low-paid temporary jobs, including as a department store clerk at Eaton's. A brief relationship resulted in their daughter Laura, who she gave birth to on April 15, 1966 in Big Pond and raised by her parents there, while she returned to Toronto and continued her career as a musician. There she met the technical draftsman David Langham, whom she married in 1967. Their son Wade was born on April 30, 1970 in Toronto.
In addition to her work as a musician, MacNeil became increasingly involved in the local women's movement and campaigned for equal rights for women. These activities inspired some of their first songs, which were sung at demonstrations and meetings. In 1972 she composed the song Born a Woman as a protest against a local beauty pageant. She later moved from Toronto to Ottawa before temporarily returning to her hometown with her husband. In 1975 she released on the Canadian independent label Boot Records Ltd. her first album Born a Woman . The second, Part Of The Mystery , came out six years later and was funded by MacNeil's family and friends. Another independent album followed. MacNeil first attracted international attention with an appearance at Expo 86 in Vancouver .
In 1982 MacNeil bought a former one-room school building in Big Pond and lived there for several years. In 1986 she opened Rita's Tea Room , a restaurant with a souvenir shop, which has become a tourist attraction over the course of her musical career.
MacNeil signed a contract with Virgin Records in 1987 , which released their album Flying on Your Own that same year . With that she achieved her breakthrough as a musician at the age of 43. The album reached number 27 on the Canadian charts and achieved double platinum status (from 200,000 records sold). The album Reason to Believe , released the following year, was also commercially successful and won double platinum. Reason to Believe reached number 20 in the Canadian, number 32 in the UK and number 17 in the Australian album charts, where it remained a total of 21 weeks. The decoupled single Working Man , a ballad about miners, was written by MacNeils after a visit to the Princess Colliery colliery in Sydney Mines . She performed them together with The Men of The Deeps , a Canadian choir ensemble of miners from Cape Breton Island , among others at the 1989 Juno Awards . Working Man was one of her most successful songs, reaching number 11 on the UK charts.
Until the mid-1990s, MacNeil released a new album almost every year, all of which achieved gold to triple platinum status and placed in the Canadian charts. Her musical repertoire included folk, country, blues , Celtic music, roots and rock . Her total of 24 albums include several compilations with Christmas carols. MacNeil was very overweight and suffered lifelong attacks of shyness before performing live, which did not affect her success as a musician.
From 1994 to 1997 MacNeil hosted the CBC - variety show Rita & Friends , which had one to two million viewers and was honored with a Gemini Award in 1996 in the category Best Performance in a Variety Program or Series . In 1998, MacNeil co-authored Anne Simpson and published her autobiography On a Personal Note . In 2000 she worked again with The Men of The Deeps . They released the folk album Mining the Soul and went on tour together. In 2010 she released a Christmas album with the Canadian pianist Frank Mills and went on a concert tour with him in the same year. In 2012 her last album, Saving Grace , was released, on which original songs were heard for the first time in eight years. In winter 2012/2013 she toured again with Frank Mills through the maritime provinces , to Ontario and Saskatchewan . Her last live performances included attending the Sound Celebration at the 2013 East Coast Music Awards in Halifax . There she was accompanied by the Symphony Nova Scotia Orchestra , with which she had already worked several times from the late 1980s to 1999.
Rita MacNeil, who had planned further concerts for the summer of 2013, died on April 16 of that year at the age of 68 from complications after an operation. She left behind her daughter and son Wade Langham, who had last been her manager.
Awards
Rita MacNeil was nominated 13 times for the Juno Award and won it three times: 1987 for the category Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year , 1990 for Female Vocalist of the Year and 1991 for Country Female Vocalist of the Year .
In 1991 she was made a Member of the Order of Canada . She received honorary degrees from five universities. In 2005 she was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia . It has also won several East Coast Music Awards and Country Music Awards.
Discography
Albums
- 1975: Born A Woman , Boot Records Ltd.
- 1981: Part Of The Mystery
- 1983: I'm Not What I Seem , The University College Of Cape Breton Press
- 1987: Flying on Your Own , Virgin Records, Lupins Records (CA:
× 2Double platinum ) - 1988: Reason to Believe , Virgin Records, Lupins Records (CA:× 2Double platinum , UK:
silver) - 1988: Now the Bells Ring , Virgin Records, Lupins Records (CA:× 3Triple platinum )
- 1989: Rita , Virgin Records, Lupins Records (CA:× 2Double platinum )
- 1990: Home I'll Be , Virgin Records (CA:× 2Double platinum )
- 1992: Thinking of You , Lupins Records (CA:platinum)
- 1993: Once Upon a Christmas , Virgin Records, Lupins Records (CA:platinum)
- 1994: Volume 1: Songs from the Collection (CA:platinum)
- 1995: Porch Songs , EMI (CA:
gold) - 1996: Joyful Sounds: A Seasonal Collection , EMI
- 1997: Music of a Thousand Nights , EMI
- 1998: Full Circle , EMI
- 1999: A Night at the Orpheum , Luprock Records
- 2000: Mining the Soul , Luprock Records
- 2002: Late December , Luprock Record
- 2002: Common Dream , Luprock Record
- 2004: The Ultimate Collection
- 2004: Blue Roses , Luprock Record
- 2006: Songs My Mother Loved , Luprock Record
- 2008: Pocket Full of Dreams , Luprock Entertainment
- 2010: The Spirit of Christmas (with Frank Mills ), EMI
- 2012: Saving Grace , Koch International
Singles
- 1986: Flying On Your Own
- 1987: Used to You
- 1987: Fast Train to Tokyo
- 1988: Leave Her Memory
- 1988: Working Man
- 1988: Walk On Through
- 1988: Reason to Believe
- 1989: We'll Reach the Sky Tonight
- 1990: Crazy Love
- 1990: When Love Surrounded You and I
- 1990: Why Do I Think of You Today
- 1990: You Taught Me Well
- 1991: Watch Love Grow Strong
- 1991: Call Me and I'll Be There
- 1992: Bring It On Home to Me
- 1993: Shining Strong
- 1995: Steal Me Away
- 1995: Rolling Thunder
Video albums
- 1992: In Concert - Home I'll Be (CA:platinum)
- 2013: Live In Concert (CA:gold)
Web links
- Sound carrier by Rita MacNeil in the catalog of the German National Library
- Literature by and about Rita MacNeil in the WorldCat bibliographic database
- Rita MacNeil at Allmusic (English)
- Rita MacNeil at Discogs (English)
- Rita MacNeil in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Homepage
Individual evidence
- ↑ Obituary ( Memento of the original from April 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ritamacneil.com, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Biography ritamacneil.com, accessed on April 19, 2013.
- ↑ a b Sandra Martin: Rita MacNeil sang for Nova Scotia, and for women everywhere. In: The Globe and Mail , April 19, 2013, p. 1, accessed April 20, 2013.
- ^ Sandra Martin: Rita MacNeil sang for Nova Scotia, and for women everywhere. In: The Globe and Mail , April 19, 2013, p. 2, accessed April 20, 2013.
- ↑ Rita's career highlights capebretonpost.com, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ a b c Karen Bliss: Canadas' First Lady of Song Rita MacNeil Dies. billboard.com, April 18, 2013, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ a b Ms. Rita MacNeil, CM, ONS novascotia.ca, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Tea Room ritamacneil.com, accessed on April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Top Albums / CDs - Volume 46, No. 3, April 25 1987 ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. collectionscanada.gc.ca, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Gold Platinum Database, Search Results for: Artist: Rita MacNeil musiccanada.com, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ^ Reason to Believe australian-charts.com, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Rita MacNeil fficialcharts.com, accessed on April 19, 2013.
- ↑ a b Nick Patch: Rita MacNeil dies at 68 after surgery; son says she had been planning summer concerts. In: Toronto Star , accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Search result ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. academy.ca, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ ECMA “Sound Celebration” with Symphony Nova Scotia, Rita MacNeil, Lennie Gallant, Ennis, Ian McKinnon, Cyndi Cain, and Radio Radio, presented by CBC ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically broken marked. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. symphonynovascotia.ca, accessed April 20, 2013.
- ↑ Artist Summary junoawards.ca, accessed on April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Rita MacNeil, CM, ONS, D.Litt. gg.ca, accessed April 19, 2013.
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: CA UK
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | MacNeil, Rita |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian folk and country singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 28, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Big Pond , Nova Scotia |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 16, 2013 |
| Place of death | Sydney , Nova Scotia |