Wendy Lands is a Voiceover Actor and Canadian singer and songwriter, most noted for receiving a Juno Award nomination for Best New Solo Artist in 1997.

Career

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, she moved to

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

to attend

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

."Lands Takes Off With 'Angels'". '' Billboard'', 6 July 1996. While living in Toronto, she was a member of the pop band Double Dare and an understudy for the role of Eponine in a production of ''

Les Misérables ''Les Misérables'' ( , ) is a French historical novel by Victor Hugo, first published in 1862, that is considered one of the greatest novels of the 19th century. In the English-speaking world, the novel is usually referred to by its origin ...

''. She also began doing commercial voiceover work and recorded her debut album, ''Angels and Ordinary Men'', between 1992 and 1994. One song from the recording sessions, a duet with Wayne St. John titled "All That I Know", was released to Canadian radio in 1992. The album was released independently in 1995."Critics' Choice". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The new ...

'', 14 July 1996. Lands then signed a deal with EMI Records, which rereleased the album nationally in 1996. By the time of the album's wider release, however, Alanis Morissette had risen to international fame with ''

Jagged Little Pill ''Jagged Little Pill'' is the third studio album by Canadian singer Alanis Morissette, released on June 13, 1995, through Maverick. It was her first album to be released worldwide. It marked a stylistic departure from the dance-pop sound of he ...

'', and Lands was unfairly labeled by some critics as an imitation of Morissette; other critics, however, acknowledged superficial similarities in a couple of Lands' songs, but noted that the album as a whole was dominated by

pop ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. M. Cu ...

s rather than Morissette-style rock songs."Travel lets audiences see new Lands". ''

'', 23 January 1997. Most notably, '' Billboard'' called it "one of the most impressive Canadian recordings in years". The album produced two Top 40 hits in ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'', with lead single "Little Sins" peaking at No. 27 the week of 23 September 1996 and the title track peaking at #35 the week of 2 June 1997. The title track also peaked at No. 34 in the magazine's adult contemporary charts the week of 16 June 1997. She supported the album with a Canadian tour, both on her own and as an opening act for

Jann Arden Jann Arden (born Jann Arden Anne Richards; March 27, 1962) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and actress. She is famous for her signature ballads, "Could I Be Your Girl" and " Insensitive", which is her biggest hit to date. Early life and educat ...

and Kim Stockwood. ''Angels and Ordinary Men'' was released internationally in 1997. In 1998, Lands also received two

Canadian Radio Music Award The Canadian Radio Music Awards were an annual series of awards presented by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters that was part of Canadian Music Week Canadian Music Week (or CMW) is an industry conference and music festival held over ten ...

nominations for Best New Artist in the contemporary hit radio and adult contemporary categories. During this time, she also recorded a number of commercial voiceovers for companies including Bell Canada. She then moved to Los Angeles for a number of years, writing songs with Paul Williams,

Melissa Manchester Melissa Manchester (born February 15, 1951) is an American singer, songwriter and actress. Since the 1970s, her songs have been carried by adult contemporary radio stations. She has also appeared on television, in films, and on stage. Early l ...

, and Larry John McNally and continuing to do voiceover work in commercials. She did not record or release another album until 2002, when producer John Leftwich selected her to sing a number of vocal compositions by

Władysław Szpilman Władysław Szpilman (; 5 December 1911 – 6 July 2000) was a Polish pianist and classical composer of Jewish descent. Szpilman is widely known as the central figure in the 2002 Roman Polanski film '' The Pianist'', which was based on Szpilman ...

for an album released as a promotional tie-in to the biographical film '' The Pianist''."Szpilman standards enjoy renaissance". '' Billboard'', 23 November 2002. Lands moved back to Toronto in 2006, and has since released two further albums; Mumble and Altitude.

Discography

* ''Angels and Ordinary Men'' (1996) * ''Wendy Lands Sings the Music of the Pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman'' (Hip-O, 2002) * ''Mumble'' (2011) * ''Altitude'' (2015)

References

External links

Official Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lands, Wendy Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Anglophone Quebec people Canadian singer-songwriters Canadian women pop singers Canadian women jazz singers Singers from Montreal York University alumni Canadian musical theatre actresses 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers