", which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and "I Don't Want to Wait", which was used as the theme song of the television show Dawson's Creek.

[14] Cole then attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied jazz singing and improvisation with Bob Stoloff.

[18] She lived with three roommates and ate meagerly, building up her home studio and writing down song ideas including one that later became "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

"[19] Impressing label president Terry Ellis with her demo performances, she signed with his Imago Records in 1992, and was coached by veteran artist's manager John Carter on the album project that would become Harbinger.

[20] Cole got her first big professional break when she was invited to perform on Peter Gabriel's 1993–94 Secret World Tour.

To replace Sinéad O'Connor who left the tour, Gabriel sought Cole on the recommendation of his studio engineer Kevin Killen.

[25] Cole was also the main female vocalist on Secret World Live, the audio album documenting the tour.

[26] Her performance earned high praise:[22] in a retrospective review, PopMatters wrote that Cole was "one of the real stars" on the tour, that she easily handled Kate Bush's parts, and that she was "maybe a superior vocalist" to Sinéad O'Connor.

The accompanying artwork featured photographs of Cole with a boyishly short haircut, wearing loose fitting black sweatclothes, combat boots and nose ring.

11, its popularity bolstered by its use as the theme song for the hit teen drama series Dawson's Creek which debuted over a year after the album.

In 1996, Cole, along with Sarah McLachlan, Suzanne Vega, Lisa Loeb and others, was a featured performer in a four show mini-tour that served as a prototype for what would become the Lilith Fair tour.

The album which had guest appearances by DJ Premier and long-time Cole fan Tionne Watkins featured some R&B and hip-hop influences but failed to match the success of This Fire.

A fourth album was recorded with Hugh Padgham but the label refused to release it; in 2005 Cole uploaded one of the tracks, "Singing Out My Life", to her own website to get her sound heard.

Cole also made a home recording of a song protesting President Bush and the Iraq War titled "My Hero, Mr.

"[32] Raven, Cole's sixth studio album, was funded by a Kickstarter campaign which ran from September 22 to October 29, 2012, and raised $75,258.

The album is a recording of her live New York City show on May 1, 2016, but also includes re-recordings of two of her biggest commercial hits.

[10] Robert Morast of the Argus Leader reported that Cole was the first "bona fide mainstream musician" to take a public stance against the Iraq war.

[40] In May 2021, Cole told USA Today that her song "Hidden in Plain Sight" addressed the "shameful history of slavery.

[41] In March 2007, her official MySpace page previewed three new songs from Courage: "Comin' Down", "El Greco", and the album's first single, entitled "14".

Cole is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism, and worked with them on a radio public service announcement.

[42] On July 10, 2007, Cole sang "God Bless America" during the seventh-inning stretch of the 2007 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

[43] In August 2007, Cole toured with Mandy Moore, playing mid-size venues in the western United States.

[45] In June 2002, Cole married Moroccan musician Hassan Hakmoun, whom she had met on the Secret World Tour in 1994.