Norah Jones

Norah Jones (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist.

She has won several awards for her music and, as of 2023, had sold more than 50 million records worldwide.

Jones was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar on March 30, 1979, in Manhattan, New York City, to American concert producer Sue Jones and Indian Bengali musician Ravi Shankar.

After her parents separated in 1986, Jones lived with her mother, growing up in Grapevine, Texas.

As a child, Jones began singing in church and also took piano and voice lessons.

She attended Grapevine Middle School and Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas.

Her music took its first form early on in the local Methodist Church where she regularly sang solos.

While in high school, she sang in the school choir, participated in band, and played the alto saxophone.

At the age of 16, with both parents' consent, she officially changed her name to Norah Jones.

Jones always had an affinity for the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, among other "oldies".

She once said, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set; I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again".

She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers.

While at high school, she won the Down Beat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996).

Jones attended the University of North Texas (UNT), where she majored in jazz piano and sang with the UNT Jazz Singers.

During this time, she had a chance meeting with future collaborator Jesse Harris.

She gave a ride to a band playing at the university whose members happened to be friends of Harris.

He was on a cross-country road trip with friend and future Little Willies member Richard Julian, and stopped to see the band play.

After meeting Jones, Harris started sending her lead sheets of his songs.

In 1999, Jones left Texas for New York City.

Less than a year later, she started a band with Harris, and her recordings with them were bestsellers.

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist.

Before releasing her first studio album, she performed with Wax Poetic, Peter Malick, and jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter.

As Peter Malick states in the liner notes, "I started looking for a singer who might be open to recording [my latest songs] for me. On a Tuesday night, I walked into the Living Room just as the singer announced the last song of the set. The Dinah Washington classic 'Since I Fell for You' filled the room and I was struck breathless. Here, in the tradition of Billie Holiday, was a stunningly beautiful, blues infused voice. This was my first contact with Norah Jones."

Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000s decade.

She has won nine Grammy Awards and was ranked 60th on Billboard magazine's artists of the 2000s decade chart.

Malick asked her to participate in sessions at Room 9 from Outer Space in South Boston, during August and September 2000.

They recorded Malick's songs "New York City", "Strange Transmissions", "Deceptively Yours" and "Things You Don't Have to Do" in addition to cover versions of "All Your Love" by Sam Maghett and "Heart of Mine" by Bob Dylan.

In 2002, Jones launched her solo music career with the release of Come Away with Me, which was a fusion of jazz with country, blues, folk and pop.

It was certified diamond, selling over 27 million copies.

The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist, making her the first Indian-American person of South Asian descent to win that many Grammy awards.

These songs became the album New York City (Koch, 2003) by the Peter Malick Group Featuring Norah Jones.

After moving to New York City, Jones signed to Blue Note, a label owned by EMI Group.

The signing came as an indirect result of her performing as lead singer for the JC Hopkins Biggish Band.

Shell White, who was the wife of J. C. Hopkins, worked for EMI Publishing and gave Jones's three-track demo to Bruce Lundvall, the label's president, and Brian Bacchus, its artists and repertoire agent (A&R).

Her subsequent studio albums—Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), and The Fall (2009)—all gained platinum status, selling over a million copies each.

They were also generally well received by critics.

Jones made her feature film debut as an actress in My Blueberry Nights, which was released in 2007 and was directed by Wong Kar-Wai.

Jones is the daughter of Indian sitarist and composer Ravi Shankar, and is the half-sister of fellow Indian musicians Anoushka Shankar, and Shubhendra Shankar.

Jones's fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts, was released on April 27, 2012; her sixth, Day Breaks, was released on October 7, 2016.

Her seventh studio album, Pick Me Up Off the Floor, was released on June 12, 2020.