18 March 2024 - Sarah McLachlan - Building A Mystery

We've mostly avoided really big international artists during the last few Marches.  This week, we're not doing that.   

We start with Nova Scotia's Sarah McLachlan - who we did feature in our first Maple Leaf March, but not since.  And what a lot of people don't really realize when thinking about McLachlan, 1) she's Canadian and 2) this was her first really big hit - her first top 20 hit in the States (peaking at #13), and her biggest hit on the Canadian pop charts - her only #1 (for eight weeks!) in her home country, but also, the biggest hit of ANY song in Canada in 1997.  

In addition to winning Sarah a Juno Award for Song of the Year - one of four she won in 1998 (Album of the Year for Surfacing, Songwriter of the Year (partly for this song), Female Vocalist of the Year) (she had previously won a Juno in 1992 for "Into The Fire") - this song won a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance the same year (she also won for Best Pop Instrumental Performance the same year).

Let's remember that this 2017 Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductee also brought us Lilith Fair.  She brought us a real life Sarah McLachlan School of Music - with three locations (Vancouver, Edmonton, Surrey BC).  She's truly amazing, and she shares her gifts with others so generously.

The song, written by McLachlan and Pierre Marchand, is about insecurities and building a facade.

The song holds another distinction.

When Steve Jobs intrioduced the very first iPod in 2001, what was the first song he played?

"Building A Mystery".

The song is at its most beautiful when performed just by Sarah on an acoustic guitar, as she did a few years after the song's release.....

.....and she did again in this 2019 performance (because she still performs, people).

She doesn't just perform the song acoustic, but also with a full band, like this performance from 2022.

She's even been known to perform the song with a full symphony orchestra, like this performance from 2011.

She's even been known to perform it with Shawn Colvin and Paula Cole at the 1998 Grammys.