Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter.

Fiona Apple was born Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart on September 13, 1977, in New York City to singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart, who met when both were cast in the Broadway musical Applause.

Her father is from Tennessee, and through him, Apple has Melungeon ancestry.

Her maternal grandparents were dancer Millicent Green and big band vocalist Johnny McAfee.

Her sister Amber sings cabaret under the stage name Maude Maggart, and actor Garett Maggart is her half brother.

Apple grew up in Morningside Gardens in Harlem with her mother and sister, but spent summers with her father in Los Angeles, California.

She attended the private Episcopal school St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School and later Alexander Hamilton High School (Los Angeles), as well as being homeschooled.

Apple was classically trained on piano as a child, and began composing her own pieces by the age of eight.

When learning to play piano, she would often take sheet music and translate guitar tablature into the corresponding notes.

Apple later began to play along with jazz standard compositions after becoming proficient, through which she discovered Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald, who became major influences on her.

Since childhood, Apple has struggled with obsessive–compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety, and has also been diagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder.

At age 12, she was raped outside the apartment she shared with her mother, step-father, and sister in Harlem.

She subsequently developed an eating disorder, purposely slimming her developing body, which she saw as "bait" for potential predators.

"I definitely did have an eating disorder", she recalled.

"What was really frustrating for me was that everyone thought I was anorexic, and I wasn't. I was just really depressed and self-loathing."

She also described how her OCD developed into avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, requiring food to be a certain color or shape.

After the rape, Apple began attending Model Mugging classes, practicing self-defense, but continued to suffer panic attacks while walking home from school, which led to her relocating to Los Angeles to live with her father for one year.

In Los Angeles, Apple attended Alexander Hamilton High School for her second year.

Apple was introduced to the music industry in 1994, when she gave a demo tape containing the songs "Never Is a Promise", "Not One of Those Times", and "He Takes a Taxi" to her friend who was the babysitter for music publicist Kathryn Schenker.

Schenker then passed the tape along to Sony Music executive Andy Slater.

Apple's abilities captured his attention, and Slater signed her to a record deal.

She released five albums from 1996 to 2020, all of which reached the top 20 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart.

Apple has received numerous awards and nominations, including three Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and a Billboard Music Award.

The youngest daughter of the actor Brandon Maggart, Apple was born in New York City and was raised alternating between her mother's home in New York and her father's in Los Angeles.

Classically trained on piano as a child, she began composing her own songs when she was eight years old.

Her debut album, Tidal, containing songs written when she was in her teens, was released in 1996 and received a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the single "Criminal".

In 1996, Apple's debut album, Tidal, was released by Work Records and Columbia Records.

The record was largely inspired by Apple's recent breakup with her first boyfriend.

The album sold 2.7 million copies and was certified three times Platinum in the U.S. "Criminal", the third single, became a hit and the song reached the Top 40 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

The song's controversial Mark Romanek-directed music video played on MTV.

Other singles from Tidal included "Shadowboxer", "Sleep to Dream", and "Never Is a Promise".

Apple accepted the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist at the 1997 MTV Video Music Awards for her song "Sleep to Dream", during her acceptance speech she said:

She followed with When the Pawn... (1999), produced by Jon Brion, which was also critically and commercially successful and was certified Platinum.

In a 2000 interview, Apple stated that, despite speculation from journalists, she did not write songs about the trauma surrounding her rape: "It doesn't get into the writing. It's a boring pain. It's such a fuckin' old pain that, you know, there's nothing poetic about it."

For her third album, Extraordinary Machine (2005), Apple again collaborated with Brion and began recording the album in 2002.

However, Apple was reportedly unhappy with the production and opted not to release the record, leading fans to protest Epic Records, erroneously believing that the label was withholding its release.

The album was eventually re-produced without Brion and released in October 2005.

The album was certified Gold, and nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album.

In 2012, she released her fourth studio album, The Idler Wheel..., which received critical praise and was followed by a tour of the United States and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2013.

Apple's fifth studio album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, was released in 2020 to universal acclaim, earning two Grammy Awards: Best Alternative Music Album and Best Rock Performance for the lead single "Shameika."