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| Introduction |
Jewel is an American phenomenom, selling well over 10 million albums in the last three
years, and is a regular feature of US chat shows. It's not just for her music that the American's love
Jewel, her first volume of poetry stayed on the New York Times Best Sellers list for many months, more
recently Jewel's has starred in her first movie: Ang Lee's epic Ride With The Devil.
Outside of North American and Australia Jewel is little known, her music not able to compete in the Dance
culture of Europe. But slowly she is building a underground following here and it will be inevitable that
Jewel will receive global recognition. |
| The Early
Years |
After her family moved to Alaska, Jewel was introduced to live performing at an early age.
From about age six, Jewel would accompany her parents on tours of Alaskan hotels. At the time Atz and
Lenedra were a popular Alaskan duo. After Jewel's parents divorved when she was eight, she would follow her
father around the local bars and perform duets with him.
As a teenager, Jewel had decided that she wanted to learn more about the performing arts and managed to get
a scholarship to the Interlochen School, it was there that she refined her vocal skills, learning many
musical styles including opera.
On graduating, Jewel was unsure where her future lie and ended up in San Diego, with her mother. Having
little money to live on, both ended up living in their cars. Dissatified with the menial jobs that she was
getting, Jewel decided to start performing in local coffee houses. Having learnt to play guitar Jewel began
writing her own material and built up small, but ever-growing loyal following.
Soon record companies began to hear about this talented teenager, in San Diego, and began investigating. It
wasn't long before Jewel signed to the Atlantic Record label, with whom she released her debut album,
Pieces Of You, on the 28th February 1995. |
| Pieces
Of Jewel |
 Jewel's debut album, Pieces Of You, was not an immediate success, in fact it
flopped, probably selling no more than 100 copies a week in its first months of release. A major factor in
its failure was that Jewel could not get radio play. Many other record companies would probably have dumped
Jewel, but the execs at Atlantic Records realised her potential and decided that the only way that Jewel
was to gather a following was to put her on a constant tour. Gradually Jewel built up a loyal following and
she started appearing on local TV and radio. Her big break was getting invited onto the top US talk shows,
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The Late Show with David Letterman. With the release of her first single
Who Will Save Your Soul during 1996, Jewel began to get played on VH1 and MTV, and was nominated for Best
New Artist on MTV later that year. In 1997 the Jewel phenomenon exploded, winning Best New Artist at the
American Music Awards, nominationed for Grammys and winning the Best Female Artist at the MTV Video awards,
Pieces Of You had sold over 4 million copies in the US that year as was the second biggest selling album
behind the Spice Girls.
In 1998, Jewel's career was to move into new areas, first she released a book of poetry and then she
started fliming in Ang Lee's Ride With The Devil, and she still managed time to record her second album
Spirit which was certified double platinum in the US in its first week of release.
In 1999, Jewel embarked on her biggest tour, taking her around the world from Australia, through the Far
East and Europe and around the US. The year culminated with the release of her third album, Joy: A Holiday
Collection, a selection of her favourite Christmas tunes and a few new Jewel compositions.
Who knows what we'll see from Jewel in the new millennium. Her second book is expected to be released,
there's talk of a second movie, perhaps another album and hopefully more touring where you can see Jewel at
her best. |
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| Her music |
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Usually categorised as a folk singer, Jewel has made a major impact in the US pop charts, gaining three
top 10 hits from her debut album Pieces Of You. Her style varies from pop to country with operatic arias
on the way. By far the best way to enjoy Jewel's voice is to hear her live, but the following real audio
extracts, from Jewel's first three albums, should give you an idea of her vocal range.
Pieces Of You
Spirit
Joy: A Holiday Collection
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| Acting
& Writing |
 Jewel made her movie debut, in Ang Lee's 1999 epic Ride With The Devil, playing a
American Civil War widow, who becomes romantically involved with two Southern bushwackers. The film,
released in the UK in November 1999, was critically acclaimed. Regarded as a "masterpiece", "outstanding"
and a "classic Western". For more information on the movie, pictures and reviews click the poster icon
above.
 In 1998, Jewel released her book of poetry: A
Night With Armor. Although generally regarded as being a weak collection of teenage poems, due to her
immense US popularity, the book spent months on the New York Times Best Sellers list and has reputedly
sold over a million copies.
Jewel is expected to release a second book, called Life Stories, sometime in 2000 containing short
stories and anecdotes of her life in Alaska.
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| Jewel In
The UK |
Jewel hasn't yet made an impact in the UK or most of the rest of Europe. Her singles
having only just scraped into the Top 40 and the only entry in the album charts was the one week that
Spirit achieved in November 1998.
Jewel first made the trip to the UK in November 1996, as part of a short promotional tour. She made one
live concert appearance and that was supporting Mazzy Star and Sparklehorse at the Union Chapel in London.
The following year Jewel toured Europe twice and made a number of TV appearances. April saw her make
appearances on This Morning and The Big Breakfast, both to support the release of her first UK single Who
Will Save Your Soul. Jewel also made her first appearance at the Royal Albert Hall supporting Johnny Cash.
May was to see Jewel's first headlining appearances in the UK, where she performed sell-out shows at
London's Mean Fiddler Acoustic Room and a second appearance at the Union Chapel. October and November saw
Jewel making a short UK tour, visiting London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow and culminating at the
Shepherds Bush Empire. During this tour she made her first appearance on Jools Holland's Later show where
she performed Who Will Save Your Soul, and her biggest UK TV appearance to date, when she performed You
Were Meant For Me on the Wedneday night lottery show on the 12th November. She again returned to London in
December to record again with Jools Holland this time for his New Year's Eve Hootenanny.
1998 was a quiet year for Jewel in the UK, with just a few radio appearances in November in support of her
second album Spirit.
In May 1999 Jewel made her biggest UK tour visiting 8 cities in 11 days, which was part of Jewel's Spirit
world tour, the highlight being a 4000 sell out at London's Royal Albert Hall. Radio 2 broadcast an hour
long highlights show from her Cambridge Corn Exchange appearance. Also in May saw the UK release of Jewel's
poetry collection A Night Without Armor. In November Jewel's first movie, Ride With The Devil, was released
to critical acclaim, but unfortunately it was not a box office success.
As the new millennium approaches and almost four years since Jewel's debut album was released it would seem
that there is a lot of work to be done if Jewel is to achieve fame over here. Her UK promoters seemed to
have given up on her and seen reluctant to give Jewel's Christmas album an official release. Hopefully 2000
will see Jewel returning to the UK with some more success that she richly deserves. |
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