“Vega in concert eschews the sort of antic behavior, melodrama, or even unpredictability that might foster jaw-dropping amazement from her audience. But there is also a refreshing lack of pandering and dumbing down… Looking lithe and preternaturally young, Vega showcased 19 of her songs -- written over a 32-year span with an equal mixture of unforced charm and sophistication to a sold-out, increasingly appreciative audience.” -Minneapolis Post

“..folk mistress Suzanne Vega returns with a flourish with the stunning “Beauty & Crime,” a tribute to loss, love, and New York City. Almost every song is a gem, the lyrics thoughtful and melodies memorable…she is still on top of her game.”  -Boston Globe

In the 80’s Suzanne created an international sensation with her poetic stories and exquisite melody in her hit songs, Marlene on the Wall, Luka, and Tom’s Diner, opening doors for Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan and others.  With seven studio albums, a GRAMMY Award, and three additional  nominations to her credit, Suzanne’s latest recording, Beauty & Crime is a love letter to her hometown of New York City and was hailed “as original, gritty and gorgeous as ever” by Newsweek and “..lovely and literate” by People Magazine.  Suzanne Vega is so much more than her music.   She hosted a public radio series about 20th Century American Composers called American Mavericks which won a Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting, wrote The Passionate Eye, a book of poems and essays, and currently blogs for the New York Times.  An innovative educator and founding member of the Musician’s Cooperative songwriter workshops in the Village, her unique composition, writing and performance techniques have influenced a generation of musicians ... read full bio

Widely regarded as one of the most brilliant songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s when, accompanying herself on acoustic guitar, she sang what has been labeled contemporary folk or neo-folk songs of her own creation in Greenwich Village clubs.  Since the release of her self-titled, critically acclaimed 1985 debut album, she has given sold-out concerts in many of the world's best-known halls. In performances devoid of outward drama that nevertheless convey deep emotion, Vega sings in a distinctive, clear vibrato-less voice that has been described as "a cool, dry sandpaper- brushed near-whisper" and as "plaintive but disarmingly powerful."

Bearing the stamp of a masterful storyteller who "observed the world with a clinically poetic eye," Suzanne’s songs have always tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real world subjects. Notably succinct and understated, often cerebral but also streetwise, her lyrics invite multiple interpretations.  In short, Suzanne Vega’s work is immediately recognizable, as utterly distinct and thoughtful, and as creative and musical now, as it was when her voice was first heard on the radio over 20 years ago.

Suzanne was born in Santa Monica, CA, but grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side of New York City.  She was influenced by her mother, a computer systems analyst and her stepfather, the Puerto Rican writer Egardo Vega Yunque. There was a heady mix of multicultural music playing at home: Motown, bossa nova, jazz and folk. At age 11 she picked up a guitar and as a teenager she started to write songs.  

Suzanne studied dance at the High School for the Performing Arts and later attended Barnard College where she majored in English Literature.  It was in 1979 when Suzanne attended a concert by Lou Reed and began to find her true artistic voice and distinctive vision for contemporary folk.  Receptionist by day, Suzanne was hanging out at the Greenwich Village Songwriter’s Exchange by night.  Soon she was playing iconic venues like The Bottom Line and Folk City.  The word was out and audiences were catching on.

At first, record companies saw little prospect of commercial success.  Suzanne’s demo tape was rejected by every major record company—and twice by the very label that eventually signed her: A&M Records. Her self-titled debut album was finally released in 1985, co-produced by Steve Addabbo and Lenny Kaye, the former guitarist for Patti Smith.  The skeptical executives at A & M were expecting to sell 30,000 LP’s.  1,000,000 records later, it was clear that Suzanne’s voice was resonating around the world.  Marlene on the Wall was a surprise hit in the U.K and Rolling Stone eventually included the record in their “100 Greatest Recordings of the 1980’s.”  

1987’s follow up, Solitude Standing, again co-produced by Addabbo and Kaye, elevated her to star status.  The album hit #2 in the UK and #11 in the States, was nominated for three Grammys including Record of the Year and went platinum.  “Luka” is a song that has entered the cultural vernacular; certainly the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy.  

The opening song on Solitude Standing was a strange little a cappella piece, “Tom’s Diner” about a non-descript restaurant near Columbia University uptown.  Without Suzanne’s permission, it was remixed by U.K. electronic dance duo “DNA” and bootlegged as “Oh Susanne.”  Suddenly her voice on this obscure tune was showing up in the most unlikely setting of all:  the club.  Suzanne permitted an official release of the remix of “Tom’s Diner” under its original title which reached  #5 on the Billboard pop chart and went gold.  In 1991 a compilation, Tom’s Album, brought together the remix and other unsolicited versions of the song.  Meanwhile, Karlheinz Brandenburg, the German computer programmer was busy  developing the technology that would come to be known as the MP3. He found that Vega’s voice was the perfect template with which to test the purity of the audio compression that he was aiming to perfect. Thus Suzanne earned the nickname “The Mother of the MP3.”

Suzanne co-produced the follow-up album with Anton Sanko, 1990’s Days Of Open Hand, which won a Grammy for Best Album Package.  The album also featured a string arrangement by minimalist composer Philip Glass.  Years earlier she had penned lyrics for his song cycle “Songs From Liquid Days.”  Continuing to battle preconceptions, she teamed with producer Mitchell Froom for 1992’s 99.9F.  The album’s sound instigated descriptions such as “industrial folk” and “technofolk.”  Certified gold, 99.9F won a New York Music Award as Best Rock Album.

In 1996, Vega returned with the similarly audacious Nine Objects Of Desire, also produced by Mitchell Froom, who by then was her husband.  “Woman On The Tier (I’ll See You Through)” was released on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack.  Over the years, she has also been heard on the soundtracks to Pretty In Pink (“Left Of Center” with Joe Jackson) and The Truth About Cats & Dogs, and contributed to such diverse projects as the Disney compilation Stay Awake, Grateful Dead tribute Deadicated, Leonard Cohen tribute Tower Of Song, and Pavarotti & Friends. In 1999, The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings Of Suzanne Vega, a volume of poems, lyrics, essays and journalistic pieces was published by Spike/ Avon Books.  In 2001, she returned to her acoustic roots for her first new album in five years, the critics favorite, Songs In Red And Gray.

Suzanne’s neo-folk style has ushered in a new female, acoustic, folk-pop singer-songwriter movement that would include the likes of Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, and Indigo Girls.  In 1997, Suzanne joined Sarah McLachlan on her Lilith Fair tour which celebrated the female voice in rock and pop.  She was one of the few artists invited back every year.  Suzanne was also the host of the public radio series “American Mavericks,” thirteen hour-long programs featuring the histories and the music of the iconoclastic, contemporary classical composers who revolutionized the possibilities of new music.  The show won the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting and is back in production in 2010 with Suzanne as its host.

In 2007, Suzanne released Beauty & Crime on Blue Note Records, a deeply personal reflection of her native New York City in the wake of the loss of her brother Tim and the tragedy of 9/11.  But the record is not a sad one, per se, as her love for the city shines through as both its subject and its setting.  In it, Suzanne mixes the past and present, the public with the private, and familiar sounds with the utterly new, just like the city itself.   Produced by the Scotsman, Jimmy Hogarth and featuring songs such as “New York is a Woman” and “Ludlow Street,” Beauty & Crime is that rare album by an artist in her third decade; an album that is as original and startling as her first. Beauty & Crime won a Grammy for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.

In 2009 Suzanne was invited by Vaclav Havel to perform in Prague to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.  Joining her on stage were Renée Fleming, Lou Reed and Joan Baez.  Beginning in Suzanne began the release of a 4 disc retrospective called The Close Up Series,  on her own label, Amenuensis Productions.  This set of discs look back through her extraordinary songbook and re-imagines the work in an intimate, stripped down production, grouped as “Love Songs,” People, Places and Things,” “States of Being,” and “Songs of Family.  In the summer of 2010 Suzanne appeared again on select dates of The Lilith Fair Tour and returned to Europe for appearances at the Isle of White Festival as well as the Konzerthaus in Vienna, among others.  May 1, 2010 marked the 25th anniversary of her eponymous debut album and Suzanne performed that record, in its entirety, at a special concert at the City Winery in New York City.  In 2011, Suzanne premiered her own theater piece, “Carson McCullers Talks About Love,” at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater.  Based on the life of the acclaimed Southern gothic playwright, Carson McCullers was the author of “The Heart is a Longely Hunter,” The piece included music contributed both by Suzanne and Duncan Sheik, the songwriter and composer of the Broadway hit musical, “Spring Awakening.” 2012 finds Suzanne touring Asia and performing in the US in a co-bill with Duncan Sheik, as well as releasing the final disc in the Close Up Series and beginning work on a new studio album.

Suzanne Vega is an artist that continues to surprise.  In 2006, she became the first major recording artist to perform live in avatar form within the virtual world Second Life.  She has dedicated much of her time and energy to charitable causes, notably Amnesty International, Casa Alianza, and the Save Darfur Coalition.  Suzanne has a daughter, Ruby, by first husband Mitchell Froom.  Ruby, like Suzanne before her, attends the High School for the Performing Arts.  Suzanne is married to lawyer/poet Paul Mills who proposed to her originally in 1983.  Suzanne accepted his proposal on Christmas Day 2005, twenty two years later.  As fascinating as the New Yorkers she has been inspired by, Suzanne Vega herself is full of stories and surprises: the everyday revelations, the grabbed-on-the-run wisdom, the strange, random, miraculous stuff that make up a singular career – or maybe just another life in the big city.  

Last updated January 2012. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.