Loreena’s sound is hard to pin down, but with 14 million records sold worldwide, it’s most definitely a popular one.
Canadian born and of Scottish and Irish decent Loreena abandoned her earlier dreams of becoming a Vet when the allure of music came to her. Unusually, she developed a passion for Celtic music, no doubt spurred on by her Scottish heritage, and began to play the Celtic Harp publically, busking round Toronto in order to raise enough money to advance her music.
It was here that Loreena began to develop her unique sound. She is generally considered a world music artist but is usual because of the extensive research she does on the areas where the music she is emulating comes from. In a way her music becomes folk music as the entire history of the place she is emulating becomes entwined in the music. For example, her research in the Galicia, the Celtic area of Spain, led to ‘The Mask and The Mirror’ an album that intertwined the Arabic and Celtic sounds that merged together in the area.
She has toured worldwide with the likes of Mike Oldfield and her music has been used in popular films like Ever After, all of which has helped to build her profile to the point where a number of her albums have turned multi-platinum. It’s not often a world music artist sells this many records, but the depth and history that is contained within her music has obviously helped it to resonate with a broader audience than previously thought possible.
Loreena McKennitt
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