Regina Spektor
Encyclopedia
Regina Ilyinichna Spektor is a Russian
American
singer-songwriter
and pianist
. Her music is associated with the anti-folk
scene centered in New York City
's East Village
.
, USSR in 1980 to a musical Russian Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violin
ist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Russian college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York
. She has a brother Barry (Bear), who was featured in track 7, "* * *", or "Whisper", of her 2004 album, Soviet Kitsch.
She learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrof
upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles
, Queen
, and The Moody Blues
by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe
and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika
, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the ethnic and political discrimination that Jews faced. Spektor is fluent in Russian and reads Hebrew, and has since paid tribute to her Russian heritage, quoting the poem February by the famous Russian poet Boris Pasternak
in her song Après Moi, and stating “I’m very connected to the language and the culture.”
Traveling first to Austria
and then Italy
, the family was admitted to the United States as refugees with the assistance of HIAS
(the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and settled in The Bronx
, where Spektor graduated from the SAR Academy
, a Jewish day middle school
in the Riverdale
section of the Bronx. She then attended high school for two years at the Frisch School
, a yeshiva
in Paramus, New Jersey
, but transferred to a public school, Fair Lawn High School
, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey
, where she finished the last two years of her high school education.
, until she was 17; Spektor's father had met Vargas through her husband, violinist Samuel Marder. Although the family had been unable to bring their piano from Russia, Spektor found a piano on which to play in the basement of her synagogue, and also practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces.
Spektor was originally interested only in classical music, but later became interested in hip hop
, rock
and punk
as well. Although she had always made up songs around the house, Spektor first became interested in more formal songwriting during a visit to Israel
with the Nesiya Institute
in her teenage years when she attracted attention from the other children on the trip for the songs she made up while hiking and realized she had an aptitude for songwriting.
Following this trip, she was exposed to the work of Joni Mitchell
, Ani DiFranco
, and other singer-songwriters, which encouraged her belief that she could create her own songs. She wrote her first a cappella
songs around the age of 16 and her first songs for voice and piano when she was nearly 18.
Spektor completed the four-year studio composition program of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College
within three years, graduating with honors
in 2001. Around this time, she also worked briefly at a butterfly farm in Luck, Wisconsin
, and studied in Tottenham
, ( a suburb of London
) for one semester.
She gradually achieved recognition through performances in the anti-folk scene in downtown New York City, often as a duo with drummer Anders Griffen
, and most importantly at the East Village's Sidewalk Cafe, but also at the Living Room, Tonic, Fez, the Knitting Factory
, and CB
's Gallery. She also performed at local colleges (such as Sarah Lawrence College
) with other musicians, including the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. She sold self-published CDs at her performances during this period: 11:11 (2001) and Songs
(2002). In 2004, she signed a contract with Warner Brothers' record label Sire Records
to publish and distribute her third album Soviet Kitsch, originally self-released in 2003.
Spektor has said that she has created a great number of songs, but that she rarely writes any of them down. She has also stated that she never aspired to write songs herself, but songs seem to just flow to her. Spektor's songs are not usually autobiographical
, but rather are based on scenarios and characters drawn from her imagination. Her songs show influences from folk
, punk
, rock, Jewish
, Russian
, hip hop
, jazz
, and classical music
. Spektor has said that she works hard to ensure that each of her songs has its own musical style, rather than trying to develop a distinctive style for her music as a whole.
Spektor has a broad vocal range
and uses the full extent of it. She also explores a variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques, such as verses composed entirely of buzzing noises made with the lips and beatbox
-style flourishes in the middle of ballads, and also makes use of such unusual musical techniques as using a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of the piano or chair. Part of her style also results from the exaggeration of certain aspects of vocalization, most notably the glottal stop
, which is prominent in the single "Fidelity
". She also uses a strong New York accent on some words, which she has said is due to her love of New York and its culture.
Her lyrics are equally eclectic, often taking the form of abstract narratives or first-person character
studies, similar to short stories
or vignettes
put to song. Spektor usually sings in English, though she sometimes includes a few words or verses of Latin
, Russian, French, and other languages in her songs. She also plays with pronunciations, which she said on a NPR interview to be a remnant of her early years when she listened to pop in English without understanding the lyrics. Some of Spektor's lyrics include literary allusions, such as to F. Scott Fitzgerald
and Ernest Hemingway
in "Poor Little Rich Boy", The Little Prince
in "Baobabs", Virginia Woolf
and Margaret Atwood
in "Paris", Ezra Pound
and William Shakespeare
in "Pound of Flesh", Shakespeare's Hamlet
in "The Virgin Queen", Boris Pasternak
in "Après Moi", Samson
and Delilah
in "Samson", and Oedipus the King
in "Oedipus", Billie Holiday
in "Lady" and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
in "2.99 cent blues". She alludes to The Beatles
and Paul McCartney
in the song "Edit". She also used a line from Joni Mitchell's California
in her song "The Devil Came to Bethlehem". Recurring themes and topics in Spektor's lyrics include love, death, religion (particularly Biblical and Jewish references), city life (particularly New York references), and certain key phrases have been known to recur in different songs by Spektor, such as references to gravedigger
s, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
and the name "Mary Ann". Spektor's use of satire is evident in "Wasteside," which refers to The Twelve Chairs
, the classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov
, and describes the town in which people are born, get their hair cut, and then are sent to the cemetery.
In Spektor's early albums, many of her tracks had a very dry vocal production
, with very little reverb or delay added. However, Spektor's more recent albums, particularly Begin to Hope
, have put more emphasis into song production and have relied more on traditional pop and rock instruments. Spektor says the records that most impact her are those of "bands whose music is really involved", specifically naming The Beatles
, Bob Dylan
, Billie Holiday
, Radiohead
, Tom Waits
, and Frédéric Chopin
as primary influences.
In her songs, "Eet
", "Us
" and "Après Moi" the titular sounds are used as the focal point throughout. (In "Dance Anthem of the 80's", the sound "eet" is also used often, on words such as "meat", "street", and "eat").
Spektor's first nationwide tour was accompanying The Strokes
as the opening act on their 2003–2004 Room on Fire
tour, during which she and the band performed and recorded "Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men". Kings of Leon
were the second opening act on that tour, and they invited Regina to open for them on their own European tour right after The Strokes tour. In June 2005, Spektor was the opening act for the English piano rock band Keane on their North American tour
, during which she performed at Radio City Music Hall
on June 7, 2005. During her 2006 headlining tour in support of the Begin to Hope album, Spektor sold out a performance at Messiah College
in Grantham, Pennsylvania
, and two shows at Town Hall Theater
in New York City on September 27 and September 28, 2006.
Spektor has appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
(once), Late Night with Conan O'Brien
(three times), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
(twice), Jimmy Kimmel Live
(twice), Last Call with Carson Daly
(five times), Late Show with David Letterman
(twice), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
(twice), CBS News Sunday Morning
, Good Morning America
(twice), Australia's Rove Live, and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
(twice). On October 10, 2009 she performed on Saturday Night Live
.
Since January 2005, Spektor has performed on a bright red Baldwin baby grand piano. At the present time she uses exclusively Steinway & Sons
pianos. She plays a seafoam Epiphone
Wildkat archtop
hollow-body electric guitar
.
Although she generally only performs original material, Spektor occasionally performs covers. Most famous of these covers were her performances of songs by Leonard Cohen
and Madonna
, for the 2nd Annual Jewish Music & Heritage Festival at the 92nd Street Y
in New York City. In 2006 and 2007, Spektor embarked on a headlining tour of the U.S. and Europe, selling out numerous clubs and theaters. She covered John Lennon
's "Real Love" at the performance arts center of her alma mater, State University of New York at Purchase
, on March 28, 2007, at a benefit concert for the Conservatory of Music. In 2007, Spektor recorded "Real Love" for the Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur
CD, which was released in June of that year. She recorded a version of the song for Triple J
's Like a Version
radio segment which was shown on jTV.
On March 8, 2007, Spektor appeared on the British ITV
network's Loose Women
, promoting and performing "Fidelity" live, and on April 20, 2007, she performed on the Late Show with David Letterman. On Saturday, April 28, 2007, she appeared at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
. On Friday, May 18, 2007, she appeared on BBC1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
. On June 16, 2007, she performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
and later performed at the 2007 Lollapalooza
on August 4, 2007 and Virgin Festival
on August 5, 2007 in Baltimore, Maryland. On September 16, 2007, she performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival
and recorded a set for the Austin City Limits
TV show the following day. She performed acoustic at the Bridge School Benefit
at Shoreline Amphitheatre
on October 27 and October 28, 2007.
On November 14, 2007, at her concert at Ryman Auditorium, in Nashville, it was announced that Spektor collapsed during the sound check and was taken to a local emergency room. According to the statement given to the audience, Spektor was fine, but doctors said that she could not perform that night. It was later reported that the cause of the collapse was an inner ear
infection which caused intense vertigo
. The show was initially rescheduled for December 6, 2007, but the date was once again rescheduled, and the concert finally occurred on February 29, 2008. After her initial collapse in Nashville, she was able to perform in concerts at Mountain Stage
on November 18, 2007, and at Duke University on November 19, 2007.
In conjunction with the release of her 2009 album Far
, Spektor was headlining at Serpentine Sessions, a series of concerts London
's Hyde Park
on June 29, 2009. Other European performances in 2009 include Glastonbury Festival
, Hultsfred Festival
, Oxegen 2009
, T in the Park
, Paradiso (Amsterdam)
, Latitude Festival
, and Rock Werchter
. Spektor has invited Brooklyn-based rock band Jupiter One
to open concerts on her 2009 North American tour. As a part of that tour, on October 14, 2009 Spektor headlined a concert at the Radio City Music Hall
in NYC.
On July 7, 2010, Regina performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
in Montreux, Switzerland. Her cellist, Dan Cho, drowned the day before while swimming in Lake Geneva
near the Chillon Castle. She was described as distraught, shaken, and in tears and took several breaks to regain her composure.
Since 2005, Spektor's music has been used in various television programs and commercials. In late 2005 "Us" (from Soviet Kitsch) was used in a commercial as part of the What Do You Want To Watch? series for the United Kingdom's British Sky Broadcasting
. The advert features a clip from a documentary on skateboarder Danny Way
. In the summer of 2006, a clip from "Us" was used for the teaser website for Microsoft
's Zune project at ComingZune.com, as well as for a promotional campaign for MtvU
. The same track is used by Dutch telecom company KPN
in a commercial. "Somedays" was used in a 2005 episode of CSI: NY
and "Samson" was used in a 2006 episode of the same series. "On the Radio
" was used in an episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy
. "Field Below" was used in a 2006 episode titled "The Last Word" of CBS's Criminal Minds
. "Fidelity" has also been used in an episode of Grey's Anatomy titled "Six Days, Part 2", Veronica Mars
titled "Wichita Linebacker", Brothers & Sisters titled "Sexual Politics", during the end credits
of Love and Other Drugs
, and in the Brazilian telenovela
A Favorita
. "Better
" is currently being used in a commercial for XM Satellite Radio
, an episode of "How I Met Your Mother
", and the popular film My Sister's Keeper
. Her song "Music Box" is currently being used in a commercial for JC Penney. Spektor also sang the title song "Little Boxes
" of Showtime's television series Weeds
in the episode "Mile Deep and a Foot Wide" (2006) and her "Ghost of Corporate Future" was used both at the beginning and end of the episode. On January 21, 2007, she was featured on CBS News Sunday Morning.
Spektor received increased attention in 2006 when her video for "Fidelity" was viewed over 200,000 times in two days on YouTube
. On Sirius Radio
's Left of Center
channel, her single "Fidelity" was voted by listeners as the #1 song of 2006. Towards the end of 2006, VH1
showcased her as part of their "You Oughta Know: Artists on the Rise" featurettes: they played clips from the "Fidelity" music video and showed parts of an interview with Spektor during commercial breaks on the channel. Spektor was recently named #3 on VH1's Top Artists Charts.
Peter Gabriel
recorded a version of "Après Moi" on his 2010 release Scratch My Back
.
In Australia, Spektor's music has rapidly gained popularity in mainstream culture primarily due to Begin to Hope being played on the nation-wide radio station Triple J
, where it eventually became a feature album. Prior to Begin to Hope, Spektor had only a small following in Australia in comparison to the US and Europe.
Spektor reached #33 on Blender
magazine's top 100 of 2006 and was also listed as one of the "Hottest Women of...Rock!".
"Fidelity" was also used in a 2007 television commercial in New Zealand advertising Yahoo!Xtra
, a new partnership between Yahoo!
and Telecom
's Xtra
ISP
. Also in 2007, the mobile phone company Vodafone
used her lyric, "Come into my world..." from the track, "Hotel Song" on Begin to Hope, in an extensive TV advertising campaign in the UK and Ireland.
On October 1, 2007, Spektor's new video for "Better" was released on VH1 and YouTube
, where it was viewed more than 100,000 times within the first 24 hours. "Fidelity" was used in the trailer for the film 27 Dresses, released on October 3, 2007.
Her song "The Call" appeared prominently in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
, as part of the film's finale sequence. Spektor's song "Better" was used in the movie My Sister's Keeper
, loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jodi Picoult
. A section of "That Time" was featured in the film In Bruges
. Additionally, "Us" and "Hero" are both featured on the soundtrack for the film (500) Days of Summer. Spin
magazine profiled Spektor in their July 2009 issue, where she discussed her just-released album Far. The story was released in their digital edition that month, as well. In August 2009, the song "Two Birds" was used in the 2009 Fall Campaign of the Polish TV station TVN
. Also Regina's song "Eet" debuted on the show 90210
in April 2010.
On September 16, 2009, it was announced that Spektor would write the music for the musical Beauty, a modern adaptation of the Grimms
' fairy tale Sleeping Beauty
, which is set to open during the 2011–12 Broadway season.
In May of 2010, Spektor performed for President Obama and his wife Michelle along with hundreds of other guests at the White House reception in honor of Jewish Heritage Month. She sang "Us" and "The Sword & the Pen," receiving a standing ovation begun by Michelle Obama.
The song "Human of the Year" featured prominently in the trailer and first episode of the 2011 HBO series Enlightened
.
. The following year, she participated in Songs for Tibet, an initiative to support the human rights
situation in Tibet
and the 14th Dalai Lama
. The album was issued on August 5, 2008, via iTunes
and on August 19 in music stores around the world. On January 22, 2009, Spektor performed at the third annual Roe On The Rocks gig at the Bowery Ballroom
to raise money for Planned Parenthood
New York City. Also, continuing with her support for Tibet, Regina Spektor played for Tibet House's annual concert at Carnegie Hall on February 26, 2010. Less than one month later, on March 23, 2010, Spektor gave a concert at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in New York City to raise funds for the work of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. Also, on April 27, she released a cover of Radiohead's song "No Surprises
" with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders to help the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile.
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and pianist
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. Her music is associated with the anti-folk
Anti-folk
Anti-folk is a music genre that takes the earnestness of politically charged 1960s folk music and subverts it. The defining characteristics of this anti-folk are difficult to identify, as they vary from one artist to the next...
scene centered in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's East Village
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
.
Early life
Spektor was born in MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, USSR in 1980 to a musical Russian Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist. Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Russian college of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York
Mount Vernon, New York
Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It lies on the border of the New York City borough of The Bronx.-Overview:...
. She has a brother Barry (Bear), who was featured in track 7, "* * *", or "Whisper", of her 2004 album, Soviet Kitsch.
She learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrof
Petrof
Petrof is a Czech piano maker. The company was founded in 1864 in Hradec Králové by Antonín Petrof who had studied piano making in Vienna.-History of PETROF:...
upright that was given to her mother by her grandfather. She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Queen
Queen (band)
Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...
, and The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed....
by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union. The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind. The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the ethnic and political discrimination that Jews faced. Spektor is fluent in Russian and reads Hebrew, and has since paid tribute to her Russian heritage, quoting the poem February by the famous Russian poet Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
in her song Après Moi, and stating “I’m very connected to the language and the culture.”
Traveling first to Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
and then Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, the family was admitted to the United States as refugees with the assistance of HIAS
HIAS
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society was founded in 1881. The constant flow of Jewish immigrants from Russia gave birth to the society. HIAS assists Jews and other groups of people whose lives and freedom are at risk, through rescue, relocation, family reunification, and resettlement. Since its inception...
(the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and settled in The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, where Spektor graduated from the SAR Academy
SAR Academy
Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy is a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish day school. The school is located in the Riverdale section of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is well known for having no walls dividing the classrooms, which is part of the school's philosophy of...
, a Jewish day middle school
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide Jewish children with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full time basis, hence its name of "day school" meaning a school that the students attend for an entire day and not on a part time...
in the Riverdale
Riverdale, Bronx
Riverdale is an affluent residential neighborhood in the northwest portion of the Bronx in New York City. Riverdale contains the northernmost point in New York City.-History:...
section of the Bronx. She then attended high school for two years at the Frisch School
Frisch School
The Frisch School, founded in 1972 by Rabbi Menachem Meier and Alfred Frisch, is a coeducational yeshiva secondary school located in Paramus, New Jersey, which adheres to the tenets and practices of Modern Orthodox Judaism...
, a yeshiva
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
in Paramus, New Jersey
Paramus, New Jersey
Paramus is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 26,342. A suburb of New York City, Paramus is located between 15–20 miles northwest of Midtown Manhattan and approximately west of Upper Manhattan.Paramus is one of...
, but transferred to a public school, Fair Lawn High School
Fair Lawn High School
Fair Lawn High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school located in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Fair Lawn Public Schools...
, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States and a suburban municipality in the New York City Metropolitan Area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 32,457. Fair Lawn was incorporated as a borough by an Act of the New Jersey Legislature on March...
, where she finished the last two years of her high school education.
Beginnings as a songwriter
In New York, Spektor studied classical piano with Sonia Vargas, a professor at the Manhattan School of MusicManhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
, until she was 17; Spektor's father had met Vargas through her husband, violinist Samuel Marder. Although the family had been unable to bring their piano from Russia, Spektor found a piano on which to play in the basement of her synagogue, and also practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces.
Spektor was originally interested only in classical music, but later became interested in hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
as well. Although she had always made up songs around the house, Spektor first became interested in more formal songwriting during a visit to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
with the Nesiya Institute
Nesiya
Nesiya, from the Hebrew "נסיעה", meaning "journey", is an independent year-round non-profit organization based in Jerusalem and New York City...
in her teenage years when she attracted attention from the other children on the trip for the songs she made up while hiking and realized she had an aptitude for songwriting.
Following this trip, she was exposed to the work of Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
, Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco
Ani DiFranco is an American Grammy Award-winning singer, guitarist, poet, and songwriter. She has released more than 20 albums, and is widely considered a feminist icon.-Biography:...
, and other singer-songwriters, which encouraged her belief that she could create her own songs. She wrote her first a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...
songs around the age of 16 and her first songs for voice and piano when she was nearly 18.
Spektor completed the four-year studio composition program of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College
State University of New York at Purchase
Purchase College, State University of New York, is a public four-year college located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York system...
within three years, graduating with honors
Latin honors
Latin honors are Latin phrases used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree was earned. This system is primarily used in the United States, Canada, and in many countries of continental Europe, though some institutions also use the English translation of these...
in 2001. Around this time, she also worked briefly at a butterfly farm in Luck, Wisconsin
Luck, Wisconsin
Luck is a village in Polk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,210 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Luck is located at ....
, and studied in Tottenham
Tottenham
Tottenham is an area of the London Borough of Haringey, England, situated north north east of Charing Cross.-Toponymy:Tottenham is believed to have been named after Tota, a farmer, whose hamlet was mentioned in the Domesday Book; hence Tota's hamlet became Tottenham...
, ( a suburb of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) for one semester.
She gradually achieved recognition through performances in the anti-folk scene in downtown New York City, often as a duo with drummer Anders Griffen
Anders Griffen
Anders Griffen is a drummer, composer, and trumpet player from Brooklyn, New York. Griffen works in a range of contexts including folk, jazz, pop, improvised music, and modern dance theater.-Career:...
, and most importantly at the East Village's Sidewalk Cafe, but also at the Living Room, Tonic, Fez, the Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
, and CB
CBGB
CBGB was a music club at 315 Bowery at Bleecker Street in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.Founded by Hilly Kristal in 1973, it was originally intended to feature its namesake musical styles, but became a forum for American punk and New Wave bands like Ramones, Misfits, Television, the...
's Gallery. She also performed at local colleges (such as Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College
Sarah Lawrence College is a private liberal arts college in the United States, and a leader in progressive education since its founding in 1926. Located just 30 minutes north of Midtown Manhattan in southern Westchester County, New York, in the city of Yonkers, this coeducational college offers...
) with other musicians, including the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. She sold self-published CDs at her performances during this period: 11:11 (2001) and Songs
Songs (Regina Spektor album)
Songs is the second album by singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. The album was recorded in its entirety on Christmas Day of 2001; all songs were recorded in one take. Self-released copies of the album were sold at Spektor's early live shows, but the album is now available for purchase periodically at...
(2002). In 2004, she signed a contract with Warner Brothers' record label Sire Records
Sire Records
Sire Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed through Warner Bros. Records.-Beginnings:The label was founded in 1966 as Sire Productions by Seymour Stein and Richard Gottehrer, each investing ten thousand dollars into the new company. Its early releases as a...
to publish and distribute her third album Soviet Kitsch, originally self-released in 2003.
Style
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, but rather are based on scenarios and characters drawn from her imagination. Her songs show influences from folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, punk
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
, rock, Jewish
Secular Jewish music
-Israeli music:Modern Israeli music is heavily influenced by its constituents, which include Jewish immigrants from more than 120 countries around the world, which have brought their own musical traditions, making Israel a global melting pot. The Israeli music is very versatile and combines...
, Russian
Ethnic Russian music
Ethnic Russian music specifically deals with the folk music traditions of the ethnic Russian people. It does not include the various forms of art music, which in Russia often contains folk melodies and folk elements or music of aother ethnic groups living in Russia.-History:The roots of Russian...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
, and classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. Spektor has said that she works hard to ensure that each of her songs has its own musical style, rather than trying to develop a distinctive style for her music as a whole.
Spektor has a broad vocal range
Vocal range
Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitches that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech and language pathology, particularly in relation to the study...
and uses the full extent of it. She also explores a variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques, such as verses composed entirely of buzzing noises made with the lips and beatbox
Beatboxing
Beatboxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism, and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments...
-style flourishes in the middle of ballads, and also makes use of such unusual musical techniques as using a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of the piano or chair. Part of her style also results from the exaggeration of certain aspects of vocalization, most notably the glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
, which is prominent in the single "Fidelity
Fidelity (song)
"Fidelity" is an Anti-folk song from singer-songwriter Regina Spektor released in 2006 in the album Begin to Hope. The song marked Spektor's first Billboard 100 entry and is her most successful track to date. Despite a release date of September 25 , the song did not hit the charts until December...
". She also uses a strong New York accent on some words, which she has said is due to her love of New York and its culture.
Her lyrics are equally eclectic, often taking the form of abstract narratives or first-person character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
studies, similar to short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
or vignettes
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
put to song. Spektor usually sings in English, though she sometimes includes a few words or verses of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
, Russian, French, and other languages in her songs. She also plays with pronunciations, which she said on a NPR interview to be a remnant of her early years when she listened to pop in English without understanding the lyrics. Some of Spektor's lyrics include literary allusions, such as to F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
and Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
in "Poor Little Rich Boy", The Little Prince
The Little Prince
The Little Prince , first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ....
in "Baobabs", Virginia Woolf
Virginia Woolf
Adeline Virginia Woolf was an English author, essayist, publisher, and writer of short stories, regarded as one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the twentieth century....
and Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood, is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, and environmental activist. She is among the most-honoured authors of fiction in recent history; she is a winner of the Arthur C...
in "Paris", Ezra Pound
Ezra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
in "Pound of Flesh", Shakespeare's Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
in "The Virgin Queen", Boris Pasternak
Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was a Russian language poet, novelist, and literary translator. In his native Russia, Pasternak's anthology My Sister Life, is one of the most influential collections ever published in the Russian language...
in "Après Moi", Samson
Samson
Samson, Shimshon ; Shamshoun or Sampson is the third to last of the Judges of the ancient Israelites mentioned in the Tanakh ....
and Delilah
Delilah
Delilah appears only in the Hebrew bible Book of Judges 16, where she is the "woman in the valley of Sorek" whom Samson loved, and who was his downfall...
in "Samson", and Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King
Oedipus the King , also known by the Latin title Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE. It was the second of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be produced, but it comes first in the internal chronology, followed by Oedipus at Colonus and then Antigone...
in "Oedipus", Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
in "Lady" and Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome
Ethan Frome is a novel published in 1911 by the Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Edith Wharton. It is set in the fictitious town of Starkfield, Massachusetts, New England, United States...
in "2.99 cent blues". She alludes to The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
in the song "Edit". She also used a line from Joni Mitchell's California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
in her song "The Devil Came to Bethlehem". Recurring themes and topics in Spektor's lyrics include love, death, religion (particularly Biblical and Jewish references), city life (particularly New York references), and certain key phrases have been known to recur in different songs by Spektor, such as references to gravedigger
Gravedigger
A gravedigger is a cemetery worker responsible for digging graves used in the process of burial.-Fossors:Fossor or Fossarius , from the Latin verb fodere 'to dig', referred to grave diggers in the Roman catacombs in the first three centuries of the Christian Era...
s, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
In the Book of Genesis, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or the tree of knowledge was a tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden. . God directly forbade Adam to eat the fruit of this tree...
and the name "Mary Ann". Spektor's use of satire is evident in "Wasteside," which refers to The Twelve Chairs
The Twelve Chairs
The Twelve Chairs is a classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, released in 1928. Its main character Ostap Bender reappears in the book's sequel The Little Golden Calf.-Plot:...
, the classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov
Ilf and Petrov
Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf Ilya Ilf (Ilya Arnoldovich Faynzilberg and Evgeny or Yevgeni Petrov (Yevgeniy Petrovich Kataev or Katayev were two Soviet prose authors of the 1920s and 1930s...
, and describes the town in which people are born, get their hair cut, and then are sent to the cemetery.
In Spektor's early albums, many of her tracks had a very dry vocal production
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, with very little reverb or delay added. However, Spektor's more recent albums, particularly Begin to Hope
Begin to Hope
Begin to Hope is the fourth album by Russian-American singer-songwriter, Regina Spektor. It was released June 13, 2006. The album debuted at number 70 on the Billboard 200, but due to the popularity of the single "Fidelity", it peaked at number 20 and was labeled a "pace setter" by Billboard....
, have put more emphasis into song production and have relied more on traditional pop and rock instruments. Spektor says the records that most impact her are those of "bands whose music is really involved", specifically naming The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
, Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
, and Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
as primary influences.
In her songs, "Eet
Eet
"Eet" is a song from Regina Spektor's fifth studio album, Far. It was released as the album's second official single in October, 2009. In Europe it was released as a Digital Download on November 27, 2009.-Track listing:Digital Download...
", "Us
Us (Regina Spektor song)
"Us" is the second single from Regina Spektor's UK compilation album Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories, although it was originally released on her 2004 album Soviet Kitsch. The song is notable for its use of a string quartet in addition to Spektor's usual piano and vocals. The...
" and "Après Moi" the titular sounds are used as the focal point throughout. (In "Dance Anthem of the 80's", the sound "eet" is also used often, on words such as "meat", "street", and "eat").
Performances
The Strokes
The Strokes are an American indie rock band formed in 1999 in New York City. Consisting of Julian Casablancas , Nick Valensi , Albert Hammond, Jr. , Nikolai Fraiture and Fabrizio Moretti ....
as the opening act on their 2003–2004 Room on Fire
Room on Fire
Room on Fire is the second studio album by American indie rock band The Strokes. Released in October 2003, it follows 2001's Is This It and includes three singles: "12:51", "Reptilia", and "The End Has No End." Grammy-winning producer Nigel Godrich was initially in charge of production, but The...
tour, during which she and the band performed and recorded "Modern Girls & Old Fashion Men". Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon
Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion, Oklahoma but formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 1999. The band is composed of brothers Anthony Caleb Followill , Ivan Nathan Followill and Michael Jared Followill Kings of Leon is an American rock band that originated in Albion,...
were the second opening act on that tour, and they invited Regina to open for them on their own European tour right after The Strokes tour. In June 2005, Spektor was the opening act for the English piano rock band Keane on their North American tour
Hopes and Fears Tour
The Hopes and Fears Tour was the first tour made by English piano rock band Keane after the release of their debut album Hopes and Fears- Keane :. Tom Chaplin - Vocals. Tim Rice-Oxley - Piano, Synths, Backing Vocals...
, during which she performed at Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
on June 7, 2005. During her 2006 headlining tour in support of the Begin to Hope album, Spektor sold out a performance at Messiah College
Messiah College
Messiah College is a private Christian college of the liberal arts and applied arts and sciences located in Grantham, Pennsylvania, near the capital city of Harrisburg...
in Grantham, Pennsylvania
Grantham, Pennsylvania
Grantham is an unincorporated community in Upper Allen Township, Cumberland County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, best known today for the Christian liberal arts college, Messiah College, whose students make up most of its population....
, and two shows at Town Hall Theater
The Town Hall
The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...
in New York City on September 27 and September 28, 2006.
Spektor has appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
(once), Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
(three times), The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
(twice), Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.The nightly hour-long show made its debut on January 26, 2003, following Super Bowl XXXVII. Jimmy Kimmel Live! is produced by Jackhole Productions in association with ABC Studios...
(twice), Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly
Last Call with Carson Daly is an American late night talk show that is broadcast on NBC. The show is hosted by Carson Daly, the half-hour show featuring celebrity interviews, documentary-style coverage of a topic, and musical performances. Last Call airs weeknights at 1:35 a.m. Eastern / 12:35 a.m....
(five times), Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman
Late Show with David Letterman is a U.S. late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and is produced by Letterman's production company, Worldwide Pants Incorporated. The show's music director and band-leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, is...
(twice), Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The show premiered on March 2, 2009, as the third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman....
(twice), CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning is an American television news magazine program created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt. The program has aired continuously since January 28, 1979 on the CBS Television Network, airing in the Eastern US on Sunday from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m...
, Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
(twice), Australia's Rove Live, and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is a Peabody Award-winning American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson, the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise, follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup...
(twice). On October 10, 2009 she performed on Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
.
Since January 2005, Spektor has performed on a bright red Baldwin baby grand piano. At the present time she uses exclusively Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons
Steinway & Sons, also known as Steinway , is an American and German manufacturer of handmade pianos, founded 1853 in Manhattan in New York City by German immigrant Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg...
pianos. She plays a seafoam Epiphone
Epiphone
The Epiphone Company is a musical instrument manufacturer founded in 1873 by Anastasios Stathopoulos. Epiphone was bought by Chicago Musical Instrument Company, which also owned Gibson Guitar Corporation, in 1957. Epiphone was Gibson's main rival in the archtop market...
Wildkat archtop
Archtop guitar
An archtop guitar is a steel-stringed acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with blues and jazz players.Typically, an archtop guitar has:* 6 strings...
hollow-body electric guitar
Semi-acoustic guitar
A semi-acoustic guitar or hollow-body electric is a type of electric guitar with both a sound box and one or more electric pickups. This is not the same as an electric acoustic guitar, which is an acoustic guitar with the addition of pickups or other means of amplification, either added by the...
.
Although she generally only performs original material, Spektor occasionally performs covers. Most famous of these covers were her performances of songs by Leonard Cohen
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...
and Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, for the 2nd Annual Jewish Music & Heritage Festival at the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
in New York City. In 2006 and 2007, Spektor embarked on a headlining tour of the U.S. and Europe, selling out numerous clubs and theaters. She covered John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
's "Real Love" at the performance arts center of her alma mater, State University of New York at Purchase
State University of New York at Purchase
Purchase College, State University of New York, is a public four-year college located in Purchase, New York, United States. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York system...
, on March 28, 2007, at a benefit concert for the Conservatory of Music. In 2007, Spektor recorded "Real Love" for the Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur is a compilation album of various artists covering songs of John Lennon to benefit Amnesty International's campaign to alleviate the crisis in Darfur...
CD, which was released in June of that year. She recorded a version of the song for Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
's Like a Version
Like A Version
Like a Version is a segment on the Australian radio station Triple J. It was created by Mel Bampton as part of the Mel in the Morning program. Currently the segment pops up whenever artists are available and willing to do it, though mainly on the Breakfast show...
radio segment which was shown on jTV.
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network's Loose Women
Loose Women
Loose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
, promoting and performing "Fidelity" live, and on April 20, 2007, she performed on the Late Show with David Letterman. On Saturday, April 28, 2007, she appeared at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
. On Friday, May 18, 2007, she appeared on BBC1's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross
Friday Night with Jonathan Ross was a British comedy chat show presented by Jonathan Ross. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 2 November 2001. The programme featured Ross's take on current topics of conversation, guest interviews and live music from both a guest music group and the house band...
. On June 16, 2007, she performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival
Bonnaroo Music Festival
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an annual four day music festival created and produced by Superfly Productions and AC Entertainment, held at Great Stage Park on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee. It hosted its tenth annual event June 9–12, 2011...
and later performed at the 2007 Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is an annual music festival featuring popular alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop bands, dance and comedy performances, and craft booths. It has also provided a platform for non-profit and political groups. The music festival hosts more than 160,000 people over a...
on August 4, 2007 and Virgin Festival
Virgin Festival
The Virgin Fest is a rock festival held in the United States and Canada, a spin-off from the V Festival held in the UK...
on August 5, 2007 in Baltimore, Maryland. On September 16, 2007, she performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival
Austin City Limits Music Festival
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day American music festival that takes place in Austin, Texas at the city's central public park, Zilker Park...
and recorded a set for the Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits
Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...
TV show the following day. She performed acoustic at the Bridge School Benefit
Bridge School Benefit
The Bridge School Benefit is an annual non-profit charity concert held in Mountain View, California, every October at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. The concerts are all organized by musician Neil Young and his wife, Pegi....
at Shoreline Amphitheatre
Shoreline Amphitheatre
Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheater, in Mountain View, California, USA, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inside the venue it has a capacity of 22,500, with 6,500 reserved seats and 16,000 general admission on the lawn...
on October 27 and October 28, 2007.
On November 14, 2007, at her concert at Ryman Auditorium, in Nashville, it was announced that Spektor collapsed during the sound check and was taken to a local emergency room. According to the statement given to the audience, Spektor was fine, but doctors said that she could not perform that night. It was later reported that the cause of the collapse was an inner ear
Inner ear
The inner ear is the innermost part of the vertebrate ear. In mammals, it consists of the bony labyrinth, a hollow cavity in the temporal bone of the skull with a system of passages comprising two main functional parts:...
infection which caused intense vertigo
Vertigo (medical)
Vertigo is a type of dizziness, where there is a feeling of motion when one is stationary. The symptoms are due to a dysfunction of the vestibular system in the inner ear...
. The show was initially rescheduled for December 6, 2007, but the date was once again rescheduled, and the concert finally occurred on February 29, 2008. After her initial collapse in Nashville, she was able to perform in concerts at Mountain Stage
Mountain Stage
Mountain Stage is a two-hour music radio show, first aired in 1983, produced by WV Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide by National Public Radio and the Voice of America's satellite radio service. Hosted by Larry Groce, the program showcases diverse music, from the traditional to modern...
on November 18, 2007, and at Duke University on November 19, 2007.
In conjunction with the release of her 2009 album Far
Far (album)
iTunes bonus track version-Reception:Bevan of Spin writes that Spektor, in "The Calculation", "...purrs a scenario of love and hurt that plays out in the breakfast nook..." Powers of the LA Times states of "Eet" : "It's not just cute." Maerz of EW states of "Folding Chair" that she "literally sings...
, Spektor was headlining at Serpentine Sessions, a series of concerts London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's Hyde Park
Hyde Park, London
Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, United Kingdom, and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine...
on June 29, 2009. Other European performances in 2009 include Glastonbury Festival
Glastonbury Festival
The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, commonly abbreviated to Glastonbury or even Glasto, is a performing arts festival that takes place near Pilton, Somerset, England, best known for its contemporary music, but also for dance, comedy, theatre, circus, cabaret and other arts.The...
, Hultsfred Festival
Hultsfred Festival
The Hultsfred Festival is an annual music festival held in Hultsfred, Sweden. It takes place at the lake Hulingen during three days in the June or July, from Thursday to Saturday. Since the first festival in 1986, its attendance has increased from 7,500 visitors to approximately 32,000 people in...
, Oxegen 2009
Oxegen 2009
Oxegen 2009 was the sixth Oxegen festival to take place since 2004. It took place on the weekend of Friday 10 July, Saturday, 11 July and Sunday, 12 July at Punchestown Racecourse near Naas in County Kildare, Ireland...
, T in the Park
T in the Park
T in the Park is a major British music festival that has been held annually since 1994. It is named after its main sponsor, the brewing company Tennents. It was originally held at Strathclyde Park, Lanarkshire but since 1997 has been held at a disused airfield in Balado, Kinross-shire...
, Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso (Amsterdam)
Paradiso is an iconic rock music venue and cultural center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.-History:It is housed in a converted former church building that dates from the nineteenth century and that was used until 1965 as the meeting hall for a liberal Dutch religious group known as the "Vrije...
, Latitude Festival
Latitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
, and Rock Werchter
Rock Werchter
Rock Werchter is a Belgian annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, near Leuven, since 1974. It is one of the five biggest annual rock music festivals in Europe...
. Spektor has invited Brooklyn-based rock band Jupiter One
Jupiter One
Jupiter One is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2003. Inspired by a wide range of influences, they create upbeat indie pop songs, with a grounding in futuristic-sounding New Wave-style synth sounds...
to open concerts on her 2009 North American tour. As a part of that tour, on October 14, 2009 Spektor headlined a concert at the Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall
Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in New York City's Rockefeller Center. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city...
in NYC.
On July 7, 2010, Regina performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival
Montreux Jazz Festival
The Montreux Jazz Festival is the best-known music festival in Switzerland and one of the most prestigious in Europe; it is held annually in early July in Montreux on the shores of Lake Geneva...
in Montreux, Switzerland. Her cellist, Dan Cho, drowned the day before while swimming in Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva
Lake Geneva or Lake Léman is a lake in Switzerland and France. It is one of the largest lakes in Western Europe. 59.53 % of it comes under the jurisdiction of Switzerland , and 40.47 % under France...
near the Chillon Castle. She was described as distraught, shaken, and in tears and took several breaks to regain her composure.
Media coverage
British Sky Broadcasting
British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....
. The advert features a clip from a documentary on skateboarder Danny Way
Danny Way
Danny Way is a professional skateboarder.-Awards and achievements:* 1986: Won the first contest he entered at age 11* 1989: Won his first vert contest in Michigan...
. In the summer of 2006, a clip from "Us" was used for the teaser website for Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Zune project at ComingZune.com, as well as for a promotional campaign for MtvU
MtvU
mtvU is a division of Viacom's MTV Networks which produces a 24-hour television channel that is available on more than 750 college and university campuses across the United States, as well as several digital cable packages...
. The same track is used by Dutch telecom company KPN
KPN
KPN is a Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications company, including both 2G and 3G mobile operations...
in a commercial. "Somedays" was used in a 2005 episode of CSI: NY
CSI: NY
CSI: NY is an American police procedural television series that premiered on September 22, 2004, on CBS. The show follows the investigations of a team of NYPD forensic scientists and police officers as they unveil the circumstances behind mysterious and unusual deaths as well as other crimes...
and "Samson" was used in a 2006 episode of the same series. "On the Radio
On the Radio (Regina Spektor song)
"On the Radio" is the first single from Regina Spektor's fourth album, Begin to Hope. The chorus contains references to the song "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses.-Music video:...
" was used in an episode of ABC's Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
. "Field Below" was used in a 2006 episode titled "The Last Word" of CBS's Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama that premiered September 22, 2005, on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. The BAU is part of the FBI National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime...
. "Fidelity" has also been used in an episode of Grey's Anatomy titled "Six Days, Part 2", Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars
Veronica Mars is an American television series created by Rob Thomas. The series premiered on September 22, 2004, during television network UPN's final two years, and ended on May 22, 2007, after a season on UPN's successor, The CW Television Network. Veronica Mars was produced by Warner Bros...
titled "Wichita Linebacker", Brothers & Sisters titled "Sexual Politics", during the end credits
End Credits
"End Credits" is the first single from Drum and Bass duo Chase & Status' second studio album No More Idols. The single was co-written, co-produced and features vocals from Plan B and was released on 29 October 2009, reaching a peak position of No. 9 in the UK Singles Chart...
of Love and Other Drugs
Love and Other Drugs
Love and Other Drugs is a 2010 romantic comedy film co-written and directed by Edward Zwick and based on the non-fiction book Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman by Jamie Reidy...
, and in the Brazilian telenovela
Telenovela
A telenovela is a limited-run serial dramatic programming popular in Latin American, Portuguese, and Spanish television programming. The word combines tele, short for televisión or televisão , and novela, a Spanish or Portuguese word for "novel"...
A Favorita
A Favorita
A Favorita was a popular and award-winning telenovela, first broadcast in Brazil at Rede Globo from June 2, 2008 to January 17, 2009. During its broadcast, it ranked within the top of the most watched shows in Brazil....
. "Better
Better (Regina Spektor song)
"Better" is a song by Regina Spektor. Three versions of this song are known. The first version appears on her 2006 album Begin to Hope. The second version is a re-recorded radio re-cut, and third version is called "Better ," which is simply the re-cut version, only with the piano and Regina's...
" is currently being used in a commercial for XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio
XM Satellite Radio is one of two satellite radio services in the United States and Canada, operated by Sirius XM Radio. It provides pay-for-service radio, analogous to cable television. Its service includes 73 different music channels, 39 news, sports, talk and entertainment channels, 21 regional...
, an episode of "How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother
How I Met Your Mother is an American sitcom that premiered on CBS on September 19, 2005, created by Craig Thomas and Carter Bays.As a framing device, the main character, Ted Mosby with narration by Bob Saget, in the year 2030 recounts to his son and daughter the events that led to his meeting...
", and the popular film My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper is a 2004 novel written by New York Times Best Selling author Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who litigates her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia.-Plot:The story takes...
. Her song "Music Box" is currently being used in a commercial for JC Penney. Spektor also sang the title song "Little Boxes
Little Boxes
"Little Boxes" is a song written by Malvina Reynolds in 1962, which became a hit for her friend Pete Seeger in 1963.The song is a political satire about the development of suburbia and associated conformist middle-class attitudes...
" of Showtime's television series Weeds
Weeds (TV series)
Weeds is an American television comedy created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Tilted Productions in association with Lionsgate Television. The central character is Nancy Botwin , a widowed mother of two boys who begins selling marijuana to support her family after her husband dies suddenly of a...
in the episode "Mile Deep and a Foot Wide" (2006) and her "Ghost of Corporate Future" was used both at the beginning and end of the episode. On January 21, 2007, she was featured on CBS News Sunday Morning.
Spektor received increased attention in 2006 when her video for "Fidelity" was viewed over 200,000 times in two days on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
. On Sirius Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio
Sirius Satellite Radio is a satellite radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Radio.Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially launched on July 1, 2002 and currently provides 69 streams of music and 65 streams of...
's Left of Center
Left of Center
Left of Center was a College rock/Indie rock radio station on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 26 and Dish Network channel 6026. It was replaced by Sirius XMU as part of the Sirius/XM merger of channels on November 12, 2008...
channel, her single "Fidelity" was voted by listeners as the #1 song of 2006. Towards the end of 2006, VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
showcased her as part of their "You Oughta Know: Artists on the Rise" featurettes: they played clips from the "Fidelity" music video and showed parts of an interview with Spektor during commercial breaks on the channel. Spektor was recently named #3 on VH1's Top Artists Charts.
Peter Gabriel
Peter Gabriel
Peter Brian Gabriel is an English singer, musician, and songwriter who rose to fame as the lead vocalist and flautist of the progressive rock group Genesis. After leaving Genesis, Gabriel went on to a successful solo career...
recorded a version of "Après Moi" on his 2010 release Scratch My Back
Scratch My Back
-Singles:Gabriel originally intended to release Scratch My Back and I'll Scratch Yours simultaneously. However, as completion of the latter dragged out, it was instead decided to release a series of double A-sided singles with one song from each album every new full moon during 2010 on iTunes...
.
In Australia, Spektor's music has rapidly gained popularity in mainstream culture primarily due to Begin to Hope being played on the nation-wide radio station Triple J
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
, where it eventually became a feature album. Prior to Begin to Hope, Spektor had only a small following in Australia in comparison to the US and Europe.
Spektor reached #33 on Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
magazine's top 100 of 2006 and was also listed as one of the "Hottest Women of...Rock!".
"Fidelity" was also used in a 2007 television commercial in New Zealand advertising Yahoo!Xtra
Yahoo!Xtra
Yahoo!Xtra was a New Zealand web portal that existed under that name from 2007 to 2011. It was a joint venture between Yahoo!7 and Telecom New Zealand. Yahoo!7 held a 51 percent stake in the company and Telecom NZ held 49 percent. Because Yahoo!7 is a 50/50 venture, Yahoo! proper was therefore a...
, a new partnership between Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
and Telecom
Telecom New Zealand
Telecom New Zealand is a New Zealand-wide communications service provider , providing fixed line telephone services, a mobile network, an internet service provider , a major ICT provider to NZ businesses , and a wholesale network infrastructure provider to other NZ CSPs...
's Xtra
Xtra (ISP)
Xtra Limited is New Zealand's largest Internet service provider . It was founded in 1996 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom New Zealand. Xtra has provided dial-up Internet access throughout New Zealand since its inception...
ISP
Internet service provider
An Internet service provider is a company that provides access to the Internet. Access ISPs directly connect customers to the Internet using copper wires, wireless or fiber-optic connections. Hosting ISPs lease server space for smaller businesses and host other people servers...
. Also in 2007, the mobile phone company Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
used her lyric, "Come into my world..." from the track, "Hotel Song" on Begin to Hope, in an extensive TV advertising campaign in the UK and Ireland.
On October 1, 2007, Spektor's new video for "Better" was released on VH1 and YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, where it was viewed more than 100,000 times within the first 24 hours. "Fidelity" was used in the trailer for the film 27 Dresses, released on October 3, 2007.
Her song "The Call" appeared prominently in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (soundtrack)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the soundtrack of the film of the same name. Harry Gregson-Williams is the composer of the soundtrack, which was released on May 13, 2008 ....
, as part of the film's finale sequence. Spektor's song "Better" was used in the movie My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper is a 2004 novel written by New York Times Best Selling author Jodi Picoult. It tells the story of 13-year-old Anna, who litigates her parents for medical emancipation when she is expected to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from leukemia.-Plot:The story takes...
, loosely based on the novel of the same name by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult
Jodi Lynn Picoult is an American author. She was awarded the New England Bookseller Award for fiction in 2003. Picoult currently has some 14 million copies of her books in print worldwide.-Early life and education:...
. A section of "That Time" was featured in the film In Bruges
In Bruges
In Bruges is a 2008 black comedy crime film written and directed by Martin McDonagh. The film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two hitmen in hiding, with Ralph Fiennes as their gangster boss. The film takes place—and was filmed—within the Belgian city of Bruges. In Bruges was...
. Additionally, "Us" and "Hero" are both featured on the soundtrack for the film (500) Days of Summer. Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
magazine profiled Spektor in their July 2009 issue, where she discussed her just-released album Far. The story was released in their digital edition that month, as well. In August 2009, the song "Two Birds" was used in the 2009 Fall Campaign of the Polish TV station TVN
TVN (Poland)
TVN is a major Polish commercial television network. The broadcaster was co-founded by Polish businessmen Mariusz Walter and Jan Wejchert. The network launched on October 3, 1997. TVN belongs to the TVN S.A...
. Also Regina's song "Eet" debuted on the show 90210
90210 (TV series)
90210 is an American teen drama television series developed by Rob Thomas, Jeff Judah and Gabe Sachs, and the fourth series in the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise created by Darren Star. 90210 is the first series produced by CBS Productions under the company's re-launch, but is now produced by CBS...
in April 2010.
On September 16, 2009, it was announced that Spektor would write the music for the musical Beauty, a modern adaptation of the Grimms
Brothers Grimm
The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
' fairy tale Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault or Little Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm is a classic fairytale involving a beautiful princess, enchantment, and a handsome prince...
, which is set to open during the 2011–12 Broadway season.
In May of 2010, Spektor performed for President Obama and his wife Michelle along with hundreds of other guests at the White House reception in honor of Jewish Heritage Month. She sang "Us" and "The Sword & the Pen," receiving a standing ovation begun by Michelle Obama.
The song "Human of the Year" featured prominently in the trailer and first episode of the 2011 HBO series Enlightened
Enlightened (TV series)
Enlightened is an American television series starring Laura Dern. The first season, which premiered on October 10, 2011 on HBO, will consist of 10 episodes.-Plot:...
.
Philanthropy
In 2007, she covered John Lennon's "Real Love" for Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save DarfurInstant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur
Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur is a compilation album of various artists covering songs of John Lennon to benefit Amnesty International's campaign to alleviate the crisis in Darfur...
. The following year, she participated in Songs for Tibet, an initiative to support the human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
situation in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
and the 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
. The album was issued on August 5, 2008, via iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and on August 19 in music stores around the world. On January 22, 2009, Spektor performed at the third annual Roe On The Rocks gig at the Bowery Ballroom
Bowery Ballroom
The Bowery Ballroom is a music venue in the Bowery section of New York City. The structure, at 6 Delancey Street, was built just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929. It stood vacant until the end of WWII, when it became a high-end retail store. The neighborhood subsequently went into decline...
to raise money for Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood
Planned Parenthood Federation of America , commonly shortened to Planned Parenthood, is the U.S. affiliate of the International Planned Parenthood Federation and one of its larger members. PPFA is a non-profit organization providing reproductive health and maternal and child health services. The...
New York City. Also, continuing with her support for Tibet, Regina Spektor played for Tibet House's annual concert at Carnegie Hall on February 26, 2010. Less than one month later, on March 23, 2010, Spektor gave a concert at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in New York City to raise funds for the work of Doctors Without Borders in Haiti. Also, on April 27, she released a cover of Radiohead's song "No Surprises
No Surprises
"No Surprises" is a song by the English rock band Radiohead. It was released as the third and final single from the group's 1997 album OK Computer. It was accompanied by a music video that featured a single shot of singer Thom Yorke's head in a plastic bubble filling with water. The single peaked...
" with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders to help the earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile.
Discography
- 2001: 11:11
- 2002: SongsSongs (Regina Spektor album)Songs is the second album by singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. The album was recorded in its entirety on Christmas Day of 2001; all songs were recorded in one take. Self-released copies of the album were sold at Spektor's early live shows, but the album is now available for purchase periodically at...
- 2004: Soviet Kitsch
- 2006: Begin to HopeBegin to HopeBegin to Hope is the fourth album by Russian-American singer-songwriter, Regina Spektor. It was released June 13, 2006. The album debuted at number 70 on the Billboard 200, but due to the popularity of the single "Fidelity", it peaked at number 20 and was labeled a "pace setter" by Billboard....
- 2009: FarFar (album)iTunes bonus track version-Reception:Bevan of Spin writes that Spektor, in "The Calculation", "...purrs a scenario of love and hurt that plays out in the breakfast nook..." Powers of the LA Times states of "Eet" : "It's not just cute." Maerz of EW states of "Folding Chair" that she "literally sings...
- 2012: What We Saw From The Cheap SeatsWhat We Saw from the Cheap SeatsWhat We Saw from the Cheap Seats is the sixth studio album by Russian–American alternative singer-songwriter Regina Spektor. On November 21, 2011, Spektor posted on her Facebook page that the album had been recorded with Mike Elizondo in Los Angeles during the summer of 2011 and that it is...
Awards
- Begin to Hope – Shortlist Music PrizeShortlist Music PrizeThe Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as , was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination...
(nominated) - Studio8's Female Voice of August 2009 (won)
External links
- Official site
- "Regina Spektor" interview by Noel Murray (from The A.V. Club, 21 June 2006)
- Interview from Soundcheck, WNYCWNYCWNYC is a set of call letters shared by a pair of co-owned, non-profit, public radio stations located in New York City.WNYC broadcasts on the AM band at 820 kHz, and WNYC-FM is at 93.9 MHz. Both stations are members of National Public Radio and carry distinct, but similar news/talk programs...
, 13 September 2005 - Interview from All Things ConsideredAll Things ConsideredAll Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
, National Public Radio, 28 June 2006 - Strangers Almanac Column on Regina Spektor from Glide Magazine
- NPR - All Songs Considered 7/22/2009 - Regina Spektor: When Every Sound Sings