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1 Female
Origin
Detroit, Michigan, US
Genre
Blues
Style
Blues
Mood
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Born
1 FemaleOrigin
Detroit, Michigan, USGenre
BluesStyle
BluesMood
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Born
1957
Active
1980 to Present...
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Most Loved Tracks3 users
Janiva Magness - That's What Love Will Make You Do3 users
Janiva Magness - I Want a Love3 users
Janiva Magness - You Were Never Mine3 users
Janiva Magness - Fool Me Again3 users
Janiva Magness - One Heartache Too Late
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Janiva Magness (born January 30, 1957) is an American blues and soul singer and songwriter. To date, she has released nine albums.
The Blues Foundation named Magness the B.B. King Entertainer of the Year in 2009, becoming only the second woman, after Koko Taylor, to be so honored. In the same year, she was named the Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year, which she had already won in 2006 and 2007, and was nominated for again in 2012. Since 2006, she has had 22 similar nominations. USA Today stated, "Magness is a blues star.
Magness was born in Detroit, Michigan, but suffered the tragedy of losing both of her parents to suicide before she reached her mid-teens. Placed in a series of a dozen foster homes, Magness was pregnant at the age of 17, and gave her baby daughter up for adoption.
Having been initially inspired by the music in her father's record collection, an underage Magness attended an Otis Rush concert in Minneapolis that changed her outlook. Magness later recalled, "Otis played as if his life depended on it. There was a completely desperate, absolute intensity. I knew, whatever it was, I needed more of it." Studying to become an engineer, she worked in a recording studio in Saint Paul, Minnesota, when she was coerced into doing some backing singing. Her work, which included backing Kid Ramos and R. L. Burnside, led her to Phoenix, Arizona and in forming her own band, the Mojomatics. They enjoyed local success before Magness relocated in 1986 to Los Angeles. Her first album It Takes One to Know One, was released in 1997. In 1999, Magness starred in a stage production of It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues, at the David Geffen Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles, California.
Three independent releases followed before Magness was signed to a recording contract by NorthernBlues Music. They released Bury Him at the Crossroads (2004) and Do I Move You? (2006). Both albums were co-produced by Magness and Colin Linden, with the former earning them a Canadian Maple Blues Award for Producers Of The Year. Do I Move You? reached number 8 on the Billboard Blues Album Chart.
In 2008, Magness signed with Alligator Records releasing What Love Will Do. The Chicago Sun-Times stated, "Her songs run the gamut of emotions from sorrow to joy. A master of the lowdown blues who is equally at ease surrounded by funk or soul sounds, Magness invigorates every song with a brutal honesty." She toured widely incorporating Canada, Europe as well as across the United States.
The equally critically acclaimed effort, The Devil Is an Angel Too, appeared in 2010, and Stronger for It in 2012. The latter included some of her own songs, the first album to do so since her debut effort in 1997.
In 2013, Magness was nominated in five categories for more Blues Music Awards.
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