Short Biography

Suzanne Nadine Vega (born 11 July 1959 in Santa Monica, California) is an American songwriter and singer known for her highly literate lyrics and eclectic folk-inspired music. Record companies saw little prospect of commercial success in the beginning; Vega`s demo tape was rejected by every major record company—twice by A&M. In 1984 she was finally signed by A&M, and she is now a Grammy nominated artist. Two songs of Vega`s (from her second album – Solitude Standing 1987) that were very popular are "Luka" and "Tom`s Diner." The latter has been remade by many other artists.

Vega`s mother, Pat Vega, is a computer systems analyst of German-Swedish heritage. Her father, Richard Peck, is of Scottish-English-Irish extraction and works in graphics. Her stepfather, Ed Vega, was a writer and teacher from Puerto Rico.

When Vega was two and a half, the family moved to New York City. She grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side.[2] At the age of nine she began to write poems; she wrote her first song at age fourteen. Later she attended New York`s prestigious High School of Performing Arts, now on Amsterdam Avenue between 65th & 66th Street in Manhattan. (This school was seen in the film musical Fame). There she studied modern dance and graduated in 1977.

While majoring in English literature at Barnard College[3], she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to Jack Hardy`s Monday night songwriters group at the Cornelia Street Cafe. In 1984, she received a major label recording contract.

Vega`s debut album, Suzanne Vega, was released in 1985 and was well received by critics in the U.S.;[2] it reached platinum status in the United Kingdom. Produced by Lenny Kaye, Steve Addabbo and Steven Miller, the songs feature Vega`s acoustic guitar in straightforward arrangements. Vega`s writing often featured vignettes of characters and even inanimate objects, such as in Small Blue Thing. A video was released for the album`s song Marlene on the Wall, which went into MTV and VH1`s rotations. During this period Vega also wrote lyrics for two songs on Songs from Liquid Days by composer Philip Glass.

Her next effort, Solitude Standing (1987), garnered critical and commercial success including two hit singles: Tom`s Diner, and Luka, which was an international success. Luka is written about, and from the point of view, of a battered child—at the time an uncommon subject for a pop hit. While continuing a focus on Vega`s acoustic guitar, the music is more strongly pop-oriented and features fuller, more sensual arrangements. The a cappella Tom`s Diner was later a hit again, remixed by two British dance producers under the name DNA, in 1990.

On 17 March 1995 Vega married Mitchell Froom, a musician and a record producer. They have a daughter, Ruby Froom (born 8 July 1994). The band Soul Coughing`s Ruby Vroom album was named after her, with Vega`s approval, though she requested a slight change. Vega and Froom divorced in 1998.

On 11 February 2006, Vega married Paul Mills, a lawyer and a poet. They originally met each other at Folk City on West 4th Street in 1981. In their own words, Mr. Mills proposed to Ms. Vega in May 1983, and she accepted his proposal on Christmas Day 2005.

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