Sarah McLachlan

1993–2002: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, The Freedom Sessions, Surfacing, Mirrorball

1993's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy was an immediate hit in Canada. The song “Possession” was included on the first Due South soundtrack in 1996. Over the next two years, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy became McLachlan's international breakthrough as well, scaling the charts in a number of countries. Nettwerk was innovative; it was the first record label to have a website, which made McLachlan much more accessible. It was also the first label to release Enhanced CDs. In 1994, McLachlan released The Freedom Sessions, which was alternative versions of the songs from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. It became the first Enhanced CD to debut on the Billboard 200 and then be certified gold.

Pushing along McLachlan's success was non-stop touring. Another way in which Nettwerk was different from other labels is that it did not chase radio—it believed in generating sales by putting artists in front of audiences. That meant constant touring; McLachlan's touring began in the latter half of 1988. She did not get a break until mid-1996.

In 1997, McLachlan released Surfacing. It was her best-selling album and earned her two Grammy Awards, one for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for “Building a Mystery”) and one for Best Pop Instrumental Performance (for “Last Dance”). It also won four Juno Awards, including Album of the Year for Surfacing, and Song of the Year and Songwriter of the Year for “Building a Mystery”. Reaching number one on the Canadian Albums Chart and number two on the US Billboard 200, the album has since sold over 16 million copies.

One song from Surfacing, “Angel”, became a massive international hit and remains the unofficial song of mourning, loss, and healing. It was inspired by the fatal overdose, in a hotel room, of Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboardist Jonathan Melvoin; McLachlan now knew how depressing endless touring can be. The song has touched millions, notably hip-hop artist Darryl McDaniels (Run-D.M.C.), who said it saved his life, and featured McLachlan on the track “Just Like Me” on his 2006 album Checks Thugs and Rock n Roll. In 1998, “Angel” featured in the motion picture City of Angels; that soundtrack reached number one on the Billboard 200. More than five months after the film disappeared from the theaters, the soundtrack remained firmly entrenched among Billboard's top 40 albums and earned quadruple-platinum status. Another song from Surfacing, “Full of Grace”, featured in the Season 2 finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Season 1 episode 4 of Dawson's Creek; and the film Moll Flanders.

In June 1999, McLachlan released the live album Mirrorball. Its singles included a new live version of her 1995 song, “I Will Remember You”, which had first been released on the soundtrack of the film The Brothers McMullen, and then on McLachlan's 1996 compilation album Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff. As a single, in 1995, it peaked at No. 65 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 10 in Canada; the 1999 version peaked at No. 14 on the Hot 100, reached No. 10 in Canada, and garnered McLachlan her third Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Also in 1999, McLachlan recorded the Randy Newman song “When She Loved Me” on the Toy Story 2 soundtrack as the off-screen singing voice of the character Jessie. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2000, and McLachlan performed it at the ceremony, but did not win.

2003–2006: Afterglow, Wintersong

Following the death of her mother in December 2001, and the birth of her first daughter five months later, McLachlan took a break from music to focus on motherhood. She released her fifth studio album, Afterglow, in November 2003. The album was preceded by the single “Fallen” in September, while two of its tracks, “Stupid” and “World on Fire”, were released as supporting singles the following year. McLachlan had contemplated the prospect of losing career momentum during the album's creation and has described its writing process as similar to “extracting blood from a stone”. All songs for the album were written over a two and a half year period and recorded at either Marchand's home studio in Montreal or McLachlan's home studio in Vancouver. Afterglow topped the Canadian Albums Chart, and debuted at No. 2 in the US with over 300,000 copies sold in its opening week. It has since been certified 5× platinum in Canada, and 2× platinum in the US. “Fallen” was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, while Afterglow received a nomination for Best Pop Vocal Album at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards.

Prior to embarking on the Afterglow Live tour in May 2004, McLachlan released the digital extended play Acoustic Live, which included renditions of two songs from Afterglow, and re-recorded “World on Fire” with Robbie Robertson for the TNT series Into the West. The tour took place through 2005. Afterglow Live, a CD+DVD recording package of one of the Canadian stops was released in November 2004.

In October 2006, McLachlan released a Christmas album, Wintersong. The album included 11 new recordings, including covers of Joni Mitchell's “River”, Gordon Lightfoot's “Song for a Winter's Night”, and John Lennon's “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”, which she recorded with her outreach children and youth choir. The title track is an original work of McLachlan's. Wintersong debuted at No. 42 on the Billboard 200 and was certified Platinum in the US in December 2007, selling 1.1 million copies by 2016. In Canada, it is certified 3× Platinum. Wintersong was nominated for both a Grammy Award, in the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album category, as well as for a Juno Award, for Pop Album of the Year.

On October 3, 2006, the live album Mirrorball was re-released as Mirrorball: The Complete Concert. This release contains two discs that were compiled from two concerts performed on consecutive nights in April 1998 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon. Two compilation albums were then released: Closer: The Best of Sarah McLachlan in 2008 and, in 2010, The Essential. In the meantime, McLachlan was busy with Lilith Fair.

Lilith Fair

In 1996, McLachlan became frustrated with concert promoters and radio stations that refused to feature two female musicians in a row. Bucking conventional industry wisdom, she booked a successful tour for herself and Paula Cole. At least one of their appearances together – in McLachlan's home town, on September 14, 1996 – went by the name “Lilith Fair” and included performances by McLachlan, Cole, Lisa Loeb, and Michelle McAdorey.

The next year, McLachlan founded the Lilith Fair tour, taking the name “Lilith” from the medieval Jewish legend that Lilith was Adam's first wife who refused to be subservient to him. The 1997 tour earned $16 million, making it the top-grossing of any touring festival. Among all concert tours for that year, it was the 16th highest grossing. The Lilith Fair tour brought together two million people over three years and raised more than $7 million for charity. It was the most successful all-female music festival in history, one of the biggest music festivals of the 1990s, and helped launch the careers of several well-known female artists. Subsequent Lilith Fairs followed in 1998 and 1999 before the tour was discontinued.

Nettwerk CEO and Lilith Fair co-founder Terry McBride announced that the all-female festival would make its return in mid-2010 in Canada, the United States, and Europe. A list of 36 North American shows was released, but poor ticket sales, financial problems, and headliners' withdrawing out of fear of not being paid, caused 13 of the shows to be cancelled. The European tour never materialized. But, as McBride once said: "It's not about money. It has to be fresh and feel right. When that changes, we'll stop doing it."

In 2025, McLachlan appeared in the documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story, which reflects on the legacy and cultural impact of the festival.

2014–2015: Shine On

In February 2011, citing the need for “change”, McLachlan announced that she was ending her professional relationship with Terry McBride. Both parties insisted that the split was amicable.

On May 6, 2014, McLachlan released the studio album Shine On, which was inspired by the 2010 death of her father. It was her first release on Verve Records, after leaving Nettwerk/Arista. The album debuted at No. 4 on the Billboard 200 with 42,000 copies sold during the week ending May 11. The 30-city U.S. Shine On tour began with a concert in Seattle on June 20. The Canadian leg, in October and November, included 25 shows in 21 cities. Shine On won Adult Contemporary Album of the Year at the 2015 Juno Awards.

2016–2020: Wonderland

On July 17 in New Orleans, McLachlan began a 24-city US tour as the special guest of Josh Groban on his Stages tour, which wrapped at the end of August.

On October 21, 2016, McLachlan released Wonderland, her ninth studio and second Christmas album. She promoted the album with various televised performances, including at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24, ABC's CMA Country Christmas special on November 28, and NBC's Christmas in Rockefeller Center special on November 30. That December, McLachlan released the single “The Long Goodbye”.

In January 2019, McLachlan was announced as the host of the Juno Awards of 2019.

2023–present: 30th anniversary of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy and Better Broken

McLachlan participated in an all-star recording of Serena Ryder's 2012 song “What I Wouldn't Do” in 2023. It was released as a charity single on March 2 to benefit the Feel Out Loud campaign by Kids Help Phone in support of youth mental health. At the end of the year, she announced a 30-city tour (her first major tour since her tour with Josh Groban in 2016) to be held in 2024 for the 30th anniversary of Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (1993), with the setlist comprising the album's entire tracklist in addition to other songs from her repertoire; in November 2024, she cancelled the tour due to acute laryngitis, having postponed the tour earlier. In April 2025, she reannounced the previously cancelled Canadian dates.

In April 2024, McLachlan stated she was working on new music with producer Tony Berg. Her tenth studio album, Better Broken, was released on September 19, 2025. McLachlan announced the Better Broken Tour in support of the album in September 2025 commencing in November the same year.

Additional projects and guest appearances

In 1997, McLachlan co-wrote and provided guest vocals on the Delerium song “Silence” for their album Karma. The song achieved significant US top 40 airplay when released as a single in late 2000, and also featured on the soundtrack for the movie Brokedown Palace. It has been hailed as one of the greatest trance songs of all time, over a decade after its initial release. The Tiësto remix of the song was voted by Mixmag readers as the 12th greatest dance record of all time.

In 2001, McLachlan provided background vocals, guitar, and piano on the closing track “Love Is” from Stevie Nicks' eighth solo album, Trouble in Shangri-La, in addition to drawing the dragon used for the “S” in Stevie's name on the album cover. In May 2002, her duet with Bryan Adams, “Don't Let Go”, was released on the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron soundtrack. She sang harmonies and played the piano on the song while Ash Sood did the drum work.

In 2003, she appeared as a celebrity NPC in The Sims Superstar.

In November 2006, McLachlan contributed “Ordinary Miracle” to the soundtrack of Charlotte's Web. There were rumors of a potential Oscar nomination for the song, but it was not nominated. She performed the song on The Oprah Winfrey Show; during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; and at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

McLachlan participated in Dave Stewart's 2007 single “Go Green”, alongside Nadirah X, Imogen Heap, Natalie Imbruglia, and others. The song was released in April of that year in honour of Earth Day.

In 2009, McLachlan provided backing vocals and piano on Susan Enan's song “Bring on the Wonder”, which was featured in the television show Bones. McLachlan included the song on her 2010 album Laws of Illusion.

On September 10, 2011, McLachlan performed “I Will Remember You” and “Angel” at a ceremony in Stonycreek, Pennsylvania, commemorating the passengers and crew of hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 who fought the hijackers and brought down their airplane on September 11, 2001. The event marked the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial and was attended by former president George W. Bush, former first lady Laura Bush, former president Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker John Boehner.

On June 13, 2019, McLachlan sang “O Canada” before Game 6 of the 2019 NBA Finals.

In 2025, McLachlan made a guest appearance on The Simpsons episode “Estranger Things”, where she performed a parody of her song, “When She Loved Me”.