<TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Alannah Myles (born December 25, 1958 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. In 1989, she released her self-titled debut album called Alannah Myles. The single from the album, &quot;Black Velvet,&quot; topped the Billboard Hot 100, and was also a hit in four other countries, including her native Canada.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Alannah grew up in Toronto and Buckhorn, where her family owns a ranch and where she also learned to ride horses. She wrote her first song at the age of eight, called &quot;Ugly Little Cabbage In The Garden,&quot; a song meant for her sister, whom she was teasing. One story told about her said that, later in her life, she had to sell her horse to buy an Ovation guitar to play in various clubs and coffee houses. However, since she came from a very wealthy family, this story is considered apocryphal.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">When she was eighteen, she began performing in Southern Ontario. She eventually met Christopher Ward with whom she formed a band and performed cover songs of Aretha Franklin, Bob Seger and The Pretenders. She managed to get gigs by deceiving club managers into believing some of her own original songs were cover songs from other bands. Later, she joined with David Tyson to complete her band. She and Christopher appeared together in a 1984 installment of the television series program The Kids Of Degrassi Street, in which she played the role of an aspiring singer and single mother.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In 1989 she released her first, self-titled album. It produced three Top 40 hits, &quot;Love Is,&quot; &quot;Lover Of Mine,&quot; and &quot;Still Got This Thing,&quot; as well as the number one hit &quot;Black Velvet.&quot; A commemoration of the life and career of Elvis Presley which American country-and-western singer Robin Lee later interpreted, &quot;Black Velvet&quot; was a number one hit worldwide and was named the most played song on radio for 1989. &quot;Black Velvet&quot; won Myles a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance, and several Juno Awards. By this point Alannah was known worldwide.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The year 1992 brought the follow up album, Rockinghorse, which included the hit singles &quot;Song Instead Of A Kiss,&quot; &quot;Our World, Our Times,&quot; and &quot;Sonny, Say You Will.&quot; She received a Grammy nomination and 3 Juno Awards.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">The year 1995 brought A-lan-nah, a lesser-known album which contained no Top 40 singles. It did include two tracks which made it into the Top 100: &quot;Family Secret&quot; and &quot;Blow Wind, Blow.&quot; Even though it was not as popular as Myles&apos;s previous two albums, it still went platinum.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In 1997 she left her eight-record contract at the Atlantic Records label and moved to ARK 21 records. Here she released Arrival, which had the Top 40 hit &quot;Bad 4 You.&quot;</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">In February 2005, together with the Swedish band K2 and Kee Marcello, she participated in the third semi-final of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Their song &quot;We Got It All&quot; scored very few points and finished seventh out of eight songs.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0"></FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT><TEXTFORMAT LEADING="2"><P ALIGN="LEFT"><FONT FACE="Verdana" SIZE="10" COLOR="#0B333C" LETTERSPACING="0" KERNING="0">Alannah continues to tour Canada and the rest of the world. She has recorded a new album called Black Velvet, which features a new recording of her song of the same name, and ten new songs. The album will be released in March 2008.</FONT></P></TEXTFORMAT>