Janis Ian

Janis Ian (born on April 7, 1951) is a Grammy-winning American songwriter, singer and multi-instrumental musician.

Born April 7, 1951, she began life on her parent's farm in Farmingdale NJ. Her father served honorably in the military and then used the GI Bill to get a degree from Rutgers U. in teaching; her mother earned a living as a waitress when Janis was a baby, and eventually became a successful fundraiser employed by Bank Street College.
Her activist parents never shied away from discussing tough subjects with their children, and their love of music was a guiding force in young Ian's life. She began playing the piano at age 2 1/2 (at her request), then picked up a guitar at ten while attending Camp Woodland in Phoenicia, NY. By twelve, she was writing songs. Published by Broadside Magazine a year later, she sang at a "hoot" and was "discovered". Her parents moved from NJ to New York City when Janis was fourteen so her father could have a shorter commute. (He was teaching in NYC at the time.)
She fell in with Rev. Gary Davis, who eventually asked her to open for him at the Gaslight Cafe, where she was again "discovered" and taken to the office of producer Shadow Morton. That relationship resulted in Ian's first major hit, "Society's Child", the first top forty hit about an interracial relationship. You can read about all the drama associated with it in Janis' best-selling autobiography, "Society's Child", four stars from O Magazine among others!
The life of a child star is difficult, and a few years later Ian walked away from the music business "to find out if I'd ever be the writer I wanted to be." Returning full force a few years later, she created a body of work that has stood the test of time. Songs like "At Seventeen", "Jesse", "Stars", and "Love Is Blind" are among the most recorded any full-time performing artist has ever written.
Janis spent 1973-1983 doing 150-300 shows a year all over the world, and in the process was granted two Grammy Awards and numerous nominations, multiple platinum, double platinum, and gold records in a score of countries (including Japan, where her first single occupied the #1 slot for a full year!). At the end of 1983 she again walked away, feeling her life as a writer was threatened by the constant travel and concentration on performing and recording. Despite having won accolades for side projects like a piano duet with Chick Corea, or a Grammy nomination for her duet with Mel Torme, Ian thought her writing was going downhill.
"It's easy to talk me into things," she said at the time, "except when it comes to my writing. The writing comes first. It's the basis for everything I do, and everything I am." No wonder; that protectiveness has shown itself in the wide variety of artists who've recorded her songs, from John Mellencamp to Cher to Jeff Beck and Johnny Depp, Nina Simone, and Glen Campbell among others.
Again she made a stunning return with "Breaking Silence", which garnered her yet another Grammy nomination and paved the way for her official "coming out" at the urging of legendary activist Urvashi Vaid. She wrote monthly columns for The Advocate and Performing Songwriter (for seven and ten years respectively), published two impassioned pieces about the importance downloading music would come to have ("The Internet Debacle" and "Fallout", both available at janisian.com), which were then quoted in the Grokster and Napster cases.
Always an avid science fiction fan, she'd been corresponding with many authors for years when multiple-Hugo-and-Nebula-Award-Winner Mike Resnick asked her to edit a book of stories by her favorite authors, based on her songs. The result, "Stars: The Anthology", featured authors as diverse as Nancy Kress, John Varley, Terry Bisson, Tanith Lee, Orson Scott Card, Mercedes Lackey, and Diane Duane. The book received four star reviews from Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly. Her next literary effort, "The Tiny Mouse", a children's book created in collaboration with noted Dutch illustrators The Schuberts, likewise received four star rave reviews.
Between books and touring, she took some time out to co-star in the final episode of "Getting On" with Laurie Metcalf and Alex Borstein. Having studied with the legendary Stella Adler for many years, and become a close friend of same, Ian held her own, and said she was also happy for the opportunity to thank yet another legend - Rita Moreno - for singing Ian's song "Days Like These" on "Oz".
Jumping ahead to closer to present time, Ian won yet another Grammy for the self-narrated audiobook of her life. Competing against former President Bill Clinton, then-first-lady Michelle Obama, journalist Rachel Maddow, and Ellen Degeneres, no one could have been more surprised than she at the upset win.
She continued to push the boundaries of "acceptable" subject matter with her song "Resist", which brought down the house at the Cambridge Folk Festival and saw an audience of 15-25-year-olds pushing up against the stage and raising their fists in solidarity with Ian's shout-out to women's empowerment.
In 2023 she received her tenth Grammy nomination for what she called her "final album", "The Light at the End of the Line". Sadly, during the tour supporting that album, Janis contracted an unknown virus (not Covid) that caused vocal cord scarring on her right larynx and was forced to cancel the tour, which was to cover every country she'd ever played in before as well as seven she'd never been able to visit before, and last two to three years.
Since that time, Ian says she's been "flailing a little", but she's stayed occupied nonetheless. In October 2024 there will be a grand opening of her archives at Berea College, along with a 3-day celebration featuring guest lectures and classes by poet Jane Hirshfield, director Varda Bar-Kar, and photographer Peter Cunningham. In late 2024 festival showings of Bar-Kar's film about Janis' life and work, "Janis Ian: Breaking Silence", will begin, with theatrical presentations the following year culminating in a long and visible run of the film on a major television station. Meanwhile, fellow artists like Joan Baez, Celine Dion, Arlo Guthrie and Lily Tomlin continue to sing Ian's praises, and she continues to inspire new generations of musicians, songwriters, and performers.