Bryan Adams

As rock entered the synth era at the dawn of the ‘80s, a new guitar-slinging saviour emerged from the west coast of Canada. Born in Kingston, Ontario in 1959 and raised in Ottawa, Bryan Adams settled in Vancouver during his teens, first infiltrating the scene in the late ‘70s playing in clubs and working as a studio musician. It wasn’t until his third solo album, 1983’s Cuts Like a Knife, that he became the rare Canadian artist to go platinum on both sides of the border, thanks to arena-ready stompers such as the title track and heartland-bound hits like “This Time”. With 1984’s blockbuster Reckless, he revealed the full breadth of his artistry, complementing his usual kids-wanna-rock attitude with lighter-waving power ballads (“Heaven”), dramatic slow-burn showstoppers (“Run to You”) and wistful origin-story anthems (the eternal “Summer of ‘69”). And yet Adams’ staggering ’80s success proved to be the mere warm-up for 1991’s Waking Up the Neighbours, whose centrepiece serenade, “(Everything I Do) I Do For You”, topped charts around the world. He's lived up to his song “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started,” continuing to tour the world; in 2022, he released his 16th studio album, So Happy It Hurts. Over the years, Adams’ rocker aesthetic would prove flexible enough to entertain collaborations with composer Hans Zimmer (on the score for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron), Tina Turner (on the duet “It’s Only Love”), and many others. But at the core of his work, there remains that unmistakable raspy voice singing to you (as another hit put it) straight from the heart. In the artist’s words: Describe one of your earliest musical memories in detail. My first concert was David Bowie during his Diamond Dogs tour in Ottawa. Little did I know that one day we'd be doing shows together. The first time was with Tina Turner on her Private Dancer tour in Birmingham, England, and later in South America. Find a song of yours on Apple Music that you love and tell us what makes it special. "So Happy It Hurts" When creating songs for a new album, there's always one song that becomes the cornerstone of the process. In this case, it was for the album I was making in 2022, So Happy It Hurts. This song personified my feelings at the time, to be back on tour.