This article is about the singer. For other people with a similar name, see Brian Adams (disambiguation).
Bryan Adams, OC, OBC (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian singer, guitarist and songwriter.
Some of his best-known songs include Summer of '69, Heaven, Everything I Do (I Do It for You), Cuts Like a Knife, and Run to You. His most popular albums are Reckless, Waking up the Neighbours and 18 Til I Die.
Adams is a Member of the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for his contribution to popular music. In 1998 he was promoted to an Officer of the Order of Canada for his philanthropic work. He was also inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1990, and is to be given the Hall of Fame Award at Canada's Juno awards this April 2006. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards.
Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario and traveled throughout Europe and the Middle East as a child with his diplomat parents, until they settled back in Canada in 1973. Adams started his musical career by dropping out of school at age 15.
At the age of seventeen, Adams sent a few demos to A&M Records and at eighteen was signed to a recording contract for one dollar. He has released fourteen albums since then.
Many of the first demos, written in 1978 when Adams was 18, surfaced over the years; most notably is I'm Ready (recorded for both the Cuts Like a Knife LP and later on the MTV Unplugged album), and Remember which went on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists before his first album even got released.
This time was also the start of a long songwriting partnership between Adams and co-writer Jim Vallance which led to the first solo album, Bryan Adams, released in 1980. His second album You Want It You Got It 1981, saw the radio hit Lonely Nights, but it wasn't until his third album Cuts Like a Knife that he broke through with four hits in 1983. He quickly followed up that album with his popular Reckless at the end of 1984. It produced six Top 40 songs and was certified platinum. Next came Into the Fire in 1987 which was also certified platinum. This was the last album completely written by Adams and Vallance, but many of the fragments of their other songs ended up on the forthcoming block buster, Waking up the Neighbours .
