Jewel
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"I would always encourage people of any age not to be so quick to follow other people's truths but to search and follow your own moral code and live by your own integrity, and mostly just be brave." |
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Jewel Kilcher (1974-) , better known by just her first name, has been singing solo professionally since early 1995, with the release of her CD Pieces of You, which went platinum twelve times, becoming one of the best-selling debut albums of all time. "Foolish Games", a single on this CD, held the record for the longest chart run of a single (sixty-five weeks), and still holds the second-longest chart run.
She has since released other albums, including a few shifts in musical style, which led to varying degrees of success. It should be noted that the main offender of this, her album 0304, debuted at at number two on the Billboard 200 and quickly went gold. Her later albums have suffered the opposite, most notably the foray into Country Music with Perfectly Clear and Sweet and Wild.
Characterized by guitar and folky sounds as well as wordy lyrics and imperfect rhymes, Jewel also has released two books, a poetry book and an autobiography. She has also starred in the movie Ride with the Devil, and has guest-starred on numerous TV shows. She's also a well-known philanthropist, donating a portion of her income Higher Ground for Humanity, particularly The Clean Water Project, as well as being a spokeswoman for the group Stop Breast Cancer for Life.
She currently lives with her husband Ty Murray on a ranch in Stephenville, Texas.
Albums:
- Pieces of You
- Spirit
- This Way
- 0304
- Goodbye Alice in Wonderland
- Perfectly Clear
- Lullaby
- Sweet and Wild
Books:
- A Night Without Armor
- Chasing Down the Dawn
- Audience Participation Song - In live shows, she encourages the audience to sing the final chorus to "You Were Meant For Me"
- Book Ends - In her album Pieces of You, every song begins and ends with the same line. Usually as a Dark Reprise
- Celebrity Deathmatch - Fought (and lost) against Alanis Morissette
- Canon Discontinuity - Typically the aforementioned 0304
- Cover Version: She's gone on the record of only doing covers of Cole Porter
- Incredibly Long Note - Last Dance Rodeo
- Murder Ballad - Nicotine Love
- New Sound Album: Subverted. Her Country Music albums aren't radically different.
- Older Than They Look - She's in her upper-30s? What?!
- Paper-Thin Disguise - Once sang her own songs at a Karaoke bar while wearing a wig and a fake nose.
- Rearrange the Song - Most prominently "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "Fragile Heart"
- Signature Song
- Stealth Parody - 0304 was intended as a parody of bubblegum pop music, but critics and most of her fanbase mistook it for a straight example.
- Through the Eyes of Madness - Fading, where a woman has a mental breakdown in a Wal-Mart bathroom before being 'taken away.'
- Unpleasable Fanbase - Her later albums seem to continuously gain disfavor thanks to her dabbling in other music genre