Pick a Day

Fiona Apple Is Born

Fiona Apple is born in Manhattan to singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart.

Apple's parents, never married, split when she is 4. "Apple" is her middle name, so instead of going by Fiona McAfee-Maggart, she uses the name "Fiona Apple." A music prodigy, she learns piano using the Real Book, a collection of standards. She plays from the sheet music in the book before ever hearing the song, then listens to the albums to see if she got it right. By the time she is 16, she has a collection of songs written with lyrics culled from her journals. Wildly introverted, only those closest to her know she's pouring her emotions into songs, which serves a therapeutic purpose for her. At 16, she decides to record some of her songs, which she does with her father in Los Angeles. Returning home to New York where she lives with her mother, Apple has 78 copies of her three-song demo tape. She gives the first one to a friend who babysits for a music publisher. That tape finds its way to the music producer Andrew Slater, who becomes her manager, gets her a deal with Sony Records, and records her debut album, Tidal, which is released in the summer of 1996 when Fiona is 18. Apple, who never performed live before signing, comes under the glare of a curious media when Sony sends her out to promote the album. It's immediately clear that Apple cannot be media trained. She sticks to talking points when answering the same questions over and over, but when engaged will say whatever is on her mind. In many interviews, she ends up talking about being raped when she was 12, a trauma that led her to write the song "Sullen Girl." By the summer of 1997, Apple has joined the Lilith Fair and built a modest following of mostly older listeners thanks to her first single, "Shadowboxer," a jazz-inflected tune that plays well on VH1 and Adult Contemporary radio. But despite her maturity, Apple is of the MTV generation, which feeds on scandal and personality. She gives them fresh meat with the video for "Criminal," a song she wrote in less than an hour to appease her hit-hungry label. In the video, Apple and other young people are in some kind of basement, disaffected and wearing very little. It becomes the main talking point in her interviews and turns the song into a hit. MTV thanks her by giving her a VMA, choosing her as Best New Artist over Hanson. In her acceptance speech, she shares what she's learned about celebrity culture: "This world is bulls--t." Apple starts a slow retreat from public life and makes limited appearances when she releases her second album in 1999. She chooses artistic purpose and time to herself over money and fame, building a cocoon of privacy to insulate herself from the internet and most others seeking her attention. Her next album appears in 2005, establishing a pattern of one album every 6-9 years. She stays off social media, but every now and then emerges with a post or video on Fiona Apple Rocks, a fan account she uses when she has something to share.

Categories

• Births