Jewel Kilcher is an American singer-songwriter. She has been nominated for four Grammy Awards and has sold over 30 million albums worldwide as of 2024.
real name: Jewel Kilcher
labels: Big Machine Records, Atlantic Records
genres: pop music, country music, folk music
awards: MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video
plays: guitar, voice
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
Jewel Kilcher was born in Payson, Utah, the second child of Atz Kilcher and Lenedra Kilcher (née Carroll). At the time of her birth, her parents had been living in Utah with her elder brother, Shane; her father was attending Brigham Young University. She is a cousin of actress Q'orianka Kilcher. Her father, originally from Alaska, was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though the family stopped attending church after her parents' divorce when she was eight years old. Her paternal grandfather, Yule Kilcher, was a delegate to the Alaska constitutional convention and a state senator who settled in Alaska after emigrating from Switzerland. He was also the first recorded person to cross the Harding Icefield.
For a time, Jewel lived in her car while traveling around the country doing street performances and small gigs, mainly in Southern California. She gained recognition by singing at the Inner Change Cafe and Java Joe's in San Diego. Her friend Steve Poltz's band, the Rugburns, played the same venues. She later collaborated with Poltz on some of her songs, including "You Were Meant for Me". (He also appeared in the song's second, better-known video.) The Rugburns opened for Jewel on her Tiny Lights tour in 1997. Poltz appeared in Jewel's band on the Spirit World Tour 1999 playing guitar.
Are you them, or do you know them? The mail slot is open.
"Who Will Save Your Soul" is a song written and performed by American singer-songwriter Jewel. It is produced by Ben Keith and was the first song released from her first studio album, Pieces of You (1995), by Atlantic Records.
The song became a hit in North America and Australasia, peaking at number seven in Canada, number 11 in the United States, number 14 in New Zealand, and number 27 in Australia. It was also moderately successful in the United Kingdom, reaching number 52 on the UK Singles Chart.
Jewel has said that "Who Will Save Your Soul" was the first song that she ever wrote and has explained her creative process in interviews and on-stage as:
Larry Flick from Billboard magazine called the song a "charmer". He added, "Amid a spare setting of strumming guitars, twinkling piano lines, and playful percussion, she comes off a tad like Joan Osborne, but with less earthy grit and more girlish glee. If there is a hit for Jewel on this album, this is probably her best shot. The odds appear to be in her favor." Steve Baltin from Cash Box wrote that on songs like “Who Will Save Your Soul”, "Jewel shows a depth people three times her age will never approach."
The music video for "Who Will Save Your Soul" was directed by American photographer and director Geoff Moore. The video features Jewel singing the song interspersed with the goings-on in a restroom. It is shown in both black-and-white and color and was filmed in the women's restroom at Los Angeles City Hall. It was nominated for MTV Video Music Awards in the Best Female Video and Best New Artist in a Video categories.
"Foolish Games" is a song by American singer-songwriter Jewel from her debut studio album, Pieces of You (1995). It was also the third single to be lifted from the Batman & Robin motion-picture soundtrack.
Jewel re-recorded the single for the soundtrack to produce a more radio-friendly version, similar to her other singles "Who Will Save Your Soul" and "You Were Meant for Me". This version is shorter than the album version by one verse.
"Foolish Games" was never released commercially in the United States. Instead, when previous single "You Were Meant for Me" was descending the Billboard Hot 100, radio stations flipped the single and began playing its B-side: "Foolish Games". Because of Billboard's chart rules regarding airplay, "Foolish Games" was eventually listed as the single's A-side. The single was removed from retail in July, but frequent airplay allowed it to continue charting. The single was resent to retail outlets on October 7, 1997, and it rebounded to number seven on the Hot 100 in early November.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic described the song as "superior". Chuck Taylor from Billboard stated that it is the "quintessential musical moment" of the Pieces of You album. He wrote that "the vocally sweeping ballad offers the richest arrangement among her hits, with lyrics that affectingly express the emotional descent of a woman whose love is unappreciated, perhaps even unseen, by her object of affection". The magazine also noted that "this piano-anchored ballad places the singer/songwriter in a setting that is almost orchestral and far more lush than those of her previous hits". A reviewer from The Daily Vault said "Foolish Games" "works because of the wailing chorus both tired and yearning".
The accompanying music video for "Foolish Games" was directed by American artist, photographer, director, and creative director Matthew Rolston. It is almost colorless and features Jewel performing the song in a pale and barren landscape. Some scenes also feature her riding a horse.
"Hands" is a song by American singer-songwriter Jewel, released as the first single from her second studio album, Spirit (1998). Jewel wrote the song following an incident in which she considered stealing a sundress after getting fired from various jobs due to kidney troubles, and she decided that her hands were better suited to writing songs than stealing clothes.
Written as one of the last songs for the album, the lyrics express how the smallest decisions have the power to make change. A piano-driven ballad, the song was serviced to American radio stations on October 7, 1998, ahead of its planned release date in mid-October due to a radio leak in Dallas, Texas.
In 2002, Jewel elaborated on the song's origin. Before she wrote "Hands", she experienced kidney troubles that prevented her from working, and as a result, she was fired from several successive jobs, sending her into poverty. She began to shoplift food but worried she would begin to steal more expensive items. One day, she noticed a sundress in a shop window and went inside to try it on, planning to steal it. However, when she noticed the price tag, she decided against it. She explained:
Ilana Kaplan of The New York Times has described "Hands" as a ballad. The album version is three minutes and fifty-four seconds long while the radio edit is three minutes and forty-seven seconds. According to the digital sheet music published at Musicnotes, the song is written in cut time (22) in the key of F minor with a moderate tempo of 68 beats per minute. The lyrics of "Hands" say that all people have the power to make their own decisions and change their lives for the better as long as they keep watch on what their hands are doing. It is also about how the smallest actions can cause a difference. Jewel explained, "I knew if I could tell the world, my hands are so little, how can they have impact on the world? They seem like tiny...
Atlantic Records originally planned to ship "Hands" to US radio sometime in mid-October, with possible impact dates being the 12th, the 16th, or the 19th. However, KHKS—a radio station in Dallas, Texas—obtained a copy of the song and began to air it. KHKS then distributed the single to other radio stations owned by the Chancellor Media Group, and "Hands" rapidly began to spread to other stations nationwide, including 118 monitored by Billboard. Because of this leak, Atlantic decided to rush-release promotional discs and move the official radio release forward to October 7. No commercial formats were released in the US.
Chuck Taylor of Billboard noted how Jewel's lyrics were "less girlish" and "creamier and more robust" than her debut efforts on "Hands" and called the track "one hell of a new single". Music Week named it the "Single of the Week" on their October 24, 1998, issue, describing the song as "delicious" and its chorus as "moving". Conversely, AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine referred to the song's lyrics as "startlingly naive".
"Standing Still" is a song by American singer-songwriter Jewel. Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, the song was included on her fourth studio album, This Way (2001).
Jewel wrote the song sometime after the release of her previous album, Spirit, while she was taking a break from her music career. According to Jewel, the song is about stepping back to avoid stagnation from a busy career and wanting a change of scenery from fame.
Jewel revealed the meaning behind "Standing Still" backstage at the 2001 My VH1 Music Awards:
"Standing Still" is a folk-pop song. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes, the song is written in the key of D major and has a moderately fast tempo of 124 beats per minute, in common time. The album version of the song is four minutes and 30 seconds long.
Taylor called "Standing Still" a "jaunty but sophisticated outing, rich in its evolving textures and guitar-fueled folk-pop base".
"This Way" is the title track and third single from American musician Jewel's fourth studio album, This Way (2001).
A music video featuring audio from the Radio Remix was shot for the song in 2002 and directed by Marcos Efron. Efron got the chance to direct the video through a competition run by Jewel's Soul City Cafe organization. The music video never aired in North America, though it was played in South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.
"You Were Meant for Me" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Jewel, released on her first album, Pieces of You (1995). It was written by Jewel and Steve Poltz.
It describes a failed relationship and the narrator's inadequate attempts at moving on with her life.
"You Were Meant for Me" was Jewel's second single to be taken from her debut album. Atlantic Records had Jewel re-record the song for a more radio-friendly version. Initially, the first version that was released was the "Juan Patino Radio Mix" (with a music video produced by Sean Penn). This version omits the first two lines of the chorus and the last four lines of the second verse, and did not gather much attention. It was later cancelled, with the video pulled from MTV and VH1. Jewel recorded the song for a third time, and the resulting version produced is known as the "radio version" and is featured on Greatest Hits.
"You Were Meant for Me" is written in the key of E minor with a moderate, swinging tempo of 114 beats per minute. The song follows a chord progression of Cadd9–G/B–C–Em, and Jewel's vocals span from G3 to C5.
"You Were Meant for Me" was serviced to US contemporary hit radio on October 15, 1996. Following its release as a commercial single later in the year, the song appeared on the Billboard Hot 100, climbing to a peak of number two in April 1997. As the single began descending the chart, radio stations began airing the B-side, "Foolish Games", and it soon garnered enough airplay to become the new A-side according to Billboard chart rules. Although the single was deleted from retail in July 1997, constant airplay kept "Foolish Games" / "You Were Meant for Me" within the upper reaches of the Hot 100. On October 7, 1997, the single was re-released to retail. With physical sales now combined with airplay points, the single re-entered the top 10,...
Steve Baltin from Cash Box picked "You Were Meant for Me" as Pick of the Week, writing that "this simple, charming pop ditty shows why Jewel's star is rising at a meteoric rate, with no sign of slowing down." He added, "A staple of VH1 and Triple A for the past couple of months, Jewel has just landed a role in the star-studded pop version of The Wizard of Oz. The ensuing publicity from that, coupled with the previous success of 'Who Will Save Your Soul', should break this song out in a big way. It couldn't happen to a more deserving artist or song." Another editor, Daina Darzin complimented it as "a sweetly affecting, charming tune whose easy groove showcases her effortless, lovely voice." British magazine Music Week gave it four out of...