Jann Arden

Jann Arden (born Jann Arden Anne Richards; March 27, 1962) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, author and actress.

She is famous for her signature ballads, "Could I Be Your Girl" and "Insensitive", which is her biggest hit to date, as well as other ballads, such as "Cherry Popsicle" and "I Would Die For You".

Jann Arden was born in Calgary and moved as a child to Springbank, Alberta, where she attended Springbank Community High School.

Her father was a construction contractor and her mother was a dental assistant.

She is the middle child of three children.

Arden grew up in a troubled family dynamic.

Her father was an abusive alcoholic.

Arden was discovered in 1985 by Calgary manager Neil MacGonigill, who worked with her from 1985 to 1998, both managing her career and acting as executive producer of her earlier albums.

The two subsequently became estranged.

Her brother was convicted of the first-degree murder of 21 year-old Carrie Louise Marshall in Creston, British Columbia, and was incarcerated in Alberta in 1992.

After she graduated high school, Arden settled in Vancouver and sang with a series of bar bands.

With these bands, she would sing cover songs of Led Zeppelin, Tina Turner, and Billie Holiday in a variety of locations including lounges, bars and ski resorts.

During this time, she had attempted to launch a solo singing career but she was battling a bout of alcoholism which held her back.

Arden released her critically acclaimed debut album, Time for Mercy, in 1993, and followed with a single "I Would Die For You".

Both were credited among the six Alberta Recording Industry Awards won by Arden in 1994.

Arden's 1994 album Living Under June featured her biggest hit to date outside of Canada, "Insensitive", which was released as a single from the soundtrack to the Christian Slater film Bed of Roses (number 12 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100).

Another single from that same album, "Could I Be Your Girl", has also had significant and consistent airplay on Canadian adult contemporary radio and featured a dance remix version which circulated on pop radio at the time.

Subsequent albums include 1997's Happy?, 2000's Blood Red Cherry, and 2003's Love Is the Only Soldier.

In 1998, respondents to Chart magazine's year-end reader's poll named Arden the Canadian celebrity most deserving of her own talk show.

Arden revealed that one of her brothers is serving a life sentence in prison and that her song "Hangin' by a Thread" is dedicated to him.

She also released a greatest hits album, Greatest Hurts, in 2001, and a live album, Jann Arden Live with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (2002).

In addition to her music, Arden has also written memoirs: If I Knew, Don't You Think I'd Tell You? (2002), I'll Tell You One Damn Thing, and That's All I Know! (2004), Falling Backwards (2011) and Feeding My Mother (2017).

In 2005, she released her eighth album (her sixth album of new material), self-titled Jann Arden.

Arden released her ninth album, Uncover Me, on February 6, 2007.

This album was her first comprising cover songs exclusively, except for one original piece, "Counterfeit Heart".

This was followed by her Uncover Me Tour across Canada during the spring of 2007.

On the weekend of March 24, 2007, Arden was admitted to intensive care for heart-related concerns, diagnosed as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, a condition commonly associated with acute stress and exhaustion.

She had a 2007 USA summer tour with Michael Bublé.

In September 2009, Arden released her tenth album, Free, and its first single, "A Million Miles Away," in June.

She then began a cross-country Canadian tour in November 2009, with some proceeds going to the "Raise-a-Reader Concert Series".

In 2010, they also carried the Olympic torch.

In November 2010, Arden released her first ever live CD and DVD set, entitled Spotlight.

Her latest autobiography, Falling Backwards, was released on November 1, 2011, along with a second album of cover songs, Uncover Me 2.

She co-wrote his 2013 song "Close Your Eyes".

Arden's thirteenth album, Everything Almost, was released April 29, 2014, through Universal Music Canada.

In October 2015, Arden released her fourteenth and first Christmas album, A Jann Arden Christmas.

Published in 2017, Arden's book Feeding My Mother: Comfort and Laughter in the Kitchen as My Mom Lives with Memory Loss, relates her involvement with her mother while the latter was experiencing Alzheimer's. She discussed that era in the book: "'I am a mother to my mother. It's a massive learning curve, not only because I didn't have children of my own, but because there isn't a handbook telling me what I should or shouldn't be doing. Alzheimer's is a different disease for every single person it inhabits. Everything is trial by fire.'"

Released in 2018, her album These are the Days includes 11 songs about the most difficult time in her life.

In a CBC interview, she recalled, "My mom and dad both were diagnosed with basically dementia and Alzheimer's and a litany of other things. My health wasn't great. I was floundering".

In 2018, she launched The Business of Life, a lifestyle podcast on topics such as entrepreneurship, motherhood, writing, relationships and navigating life challenges, which she cohosts with Arlene Dickinson.