Born Myra Ellen Amos, the singer/songwriter Tori Amos is known for her classic ‘70s songwriting and use of piano, acoustic guitar and strings. The daughter of a Methodist preacher, Amos was born in North Carolina but raised in Maryland, where she began singing and playing piano in her church choir when she was just four-years-old. Already a skilled songwriter, Amos won a scholarship to Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory due to her instrumental expertise. Amos was introduced to the rock music of bands like Led Zeppelin while studying and eventually moved to Los Angeles to become a pop singer in her late teens after performing her pop ballads in local bars in Baltimore. In 1987 Amos signed with Atlantic Records and released the lackluster pop-metal album Y Kant Tori Read the following year. Despite poor reviews and minimal album sales, Amos wasn't dropped by her label.

In 1990 Amos revamped her sound, adopting a style of piano ballads with lyrics reminiscent of Joni Mitchell and melodies arranged like Kate Bush, and released the Me and a Gun EP one year later. She toured England in support of the EP, whose title song was an autobiographical account of Amos' personal experience with rape. Later on that year the LP Little Earthquakes was released to positive reviews and record sales both in the U.S. and across the pond. Two years later Amos covered Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Zeppelin's "Thank You" for the Crucify EP and in 1994 her follow-up to Little Earthquakes came in the form of Under the Pink. The album was Amos' biggest hit yet, with popular singles "Cornflake Girl" and "God."

In 1996 Amos released her third and most ambitious full-length album, Boys for Pele, which eventually went platinum. The following year Amos suffered a miscarriage and got married but returned with her fourth effort, From the Choirgirl Hotel in 1998. In 1999 Amos toured with Alanis Morissette and issued the double-disc Two Venus and Back, which was followed by 2001's covers album Strange Little Girls (her last for Atlantic). After signing with Atlantic, Amos' Scarlet's Walk came in 2002 and her eight studio album, the autobiographical album The Beekeeper, followed in 2005. 2007's American Doll Posse is Amos' most recent release.