Bryan Adams

Born in Ontario on 5 November 1959, Canadian Bryan Adams started in club groups around Vancouver, British Columbia, at the age of 16.

Within a year of starting out, Adams was writing with Jim Vallance, their songs providing hits for Prism, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Bob Welch, KISS and others.

Touring as the opening act for The Kinks, Loverboy and Foreigner in 1982 led to his breakthrough album, Cuts Like A Knife, which went platinum and spawned the US hit single Straight From The Heart.

Summer of ’69 (his fifth US Top 10 single) paired his throaty tenor with evocative lyrics and a melody that just hit the right note of wistful nostalgia. It was all over America’s airwaves during the summer of ’85.

After his prolonged chart success with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You, the theme from Kevin Costner’s mega-grossing film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), Adams found Hollywood to be a ready-made market for his AOR ballads.

All For Love, from a limp 1994 remake of The Three Musketeers, reached US #1 and UK #2, and the following year he provided Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman – featuring the flamenco guitar work of Paco De Lucia – for the soundtrack of the Johnny Depp vehicle Don Juan DeMarco.

Nominated for an Oscar (Adams performed it at the 1996 awards ceremony), it missed out on the top honour, but Adams could console himself with an Ivor Novello Award later that year.