[8] Having already begun composing instrumental pieces on piano, Amos won a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five, the youngest person ever to have been admitted.

[9] Amos was the lead singer of the short-lived 1980s pop-rock group Y Kant Tori Read before achieving her breakthrough as a solo artist in the early 1990s.

Her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", "Flavor" and "A Sorta Fairytale".

[12] She was born on August 22, 1963[13] at the Old Catawba Hospital in Newton, North Carolina, during a trip from their Georgetown home in Washington, D.C.,[14] and was named Myra Ellen Amos.

[19] Eventually, Atlantic Records responded to one of the tapes, and, when A&R man Jason Flom flew to Baltimore to audition her in person, the label was convinced and signed her.

[18] In 1984, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career[19] after several years performing on the piano bar circuit in the Washington, D.C. area.

[27] In addition to Amos, the group was composed of Steve Caton (who would later play guitars on all of her albums until 1999), drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and, for a short time, keyboardist Jim Tauber.

"[29] Following the album's commercial failure and the group's subsequent disbanding, Amos began working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist.

[18] Little Earthquakes was released in the United States in February 1992 and slowly but steadily began to attract listeners, gaining more attention with the video for the single "Silent All These Years".

Despite the album's erratic lyrical content and instrumentation, the latter of which kept it away from mainstream audiences, Boys for Pele is Amos' most successful simultaneous transatlantic release, reaching No.

Amos' trademark acoustic, piano-based sound is largely replaced with arrangements that include elements of electronica and dance music with vocal washes.

[40] Shortly after giving birth to her daughter, Amos decided to record a cover album, taking songs written by men about women and reversing the gender roles to reflect a woman's perspective.

Through extensive study, Amos also wove in the stories of the Gnostic gospels and the removal of women from a position of power within the Christian church to create an album based largely on religion and politics.

[60] Continuing her distribution deal with Universal Republic, Amos released Midwinter Graces, her first seasonal album, in November of the same year.

[61] During her contract with the label, Amos recorded vocals for two songs for David Byrne's collaboration album with Fatboy Slim, titled Here Lies Love,[62] which was released in April 2010.

[66] September 2013 saw the launch of Amos' musical project adaptation of George MacDonald's The Light Princess, along with book writer Samuel Adamson and Marianne Elliott.

The album was supported by the Unrepentant Geraldines Tour which began May 5, 2014, in Cork and continued across Europe, Africa, North America, and Australia, ending in Brisbane on November 21, 2014.

[67] According to a press release, Unrepentant Geraldines was a "return to her core identity as a creator of contemporary songs of exquisite beauty following a series of more classically-inspired and innovative musical projects of the last four years.

[71] During the summer of 2017, Amos launched three songs from the album: "Cloud Riders", "Up the Creek", and "Reindeer King", the latter featuring string arrangements by John Philip Shenale.

Produced by Amos, the album explores topics like American politics and environmental issues, mixed with mythological elements and first-person narrations.

The album was written and recorded in Cornwall during lockdown as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and explores "a universal story of going to rock bottom and renewing yourself all over again".

[75][76] Matt Chamberlain and Jon Evans were featured on drums and bass guitar respectively, their first collaboration with Amos on an album since 2009's Midwinter Graces.

The book's subject is Amos' interest in mythology and religion, exploring her songwriting process, rise to fame, and her relationship with Atlantic Records.

Editor Rantz Hoseley worked with Amos to gather 80 different artists for the book, including Neil Gaiman, Carla Speed McNeil, Mark Buckingham, C.B.

Cebulski, Nikki Cook, Hope Larson, John Ney Reiber, Ryan Kelly, Pia Guerra, David Mack, and Leah Moore.

[98] Early in her professional career, Amos befriended author Neil Gaiman, who became a fan after she referred to him in the song "Tear in Your Hand" and also in print interviews.

[110] Of particular importance to her as a child was her maternal grandfather, Calvin Clinton Copeland, whom she has cited as a great source of inspiration and guidance, offering a pantheistic spiritual alternative to her father and paternal grandmother's traditional Christianity.

[113] While talking to The Guardian about taking Ayahuasca and attending sweatlodge ceremonies with her sister, Amos has also said, "I'm not in a position to speak for First Nation people – that's a sacred task.

[citation needed] On May 21, 2020, Amos was invited to and gave special remarks at her alma mater Johns Hopkins University's 2020 Commencement ceremony.

[152] Other notable guest speakers during the virtual ceremony included Reddit co-founder and commencement speaker Alexis Ohanian; philanthropist and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force; and senior class president Pavan Patel.