Macy Gray Artistfacts

Macy Gray song list

Macy Gray Artistfacts

September 6, 1967
Her real name is Natalie McIntyre. Macy Gray was a friend of her father's who lived nearby. She liked the sound of it, so she used it as a stage name.
Her marriage to the mortgage broker Tracy Hinds ended in 1998, the same year she signed a record deal and started working on her first album. She had three children with Hinds: daughters Aanisah and Tahmel (both born in 1995), and son Cassius (born in 1997). Much of her first album deals with her relationship with Hinds.
Macy studied screenwriting at the University of Southern California. One of her student scripts was about a girl who falls in love with her father.
She struggled for years before becoming a successful solo artist. In the mid-'90s, she got a deal with Atlantic Records as lead singer for a rock band; they recorded an album, but it was never released. After starting her family and taking a job as a secretary, she got a second chance when a music publisher heard some of her old demo records and helped get her a deal with Epic Records. She was 32 when her debut album, On How Life Is, was released.
In America, she is almost exclusively known for her hit "I Try," but in Europe her broader discography has more appeal. Her second album, The Id, went to #1 in the UK.
She grew up in Canton, Ohio, home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
They didn't know each other, but Marilyn Manson (known then as Brian Warner) grew up in her neighborhood.
At her commercial peak, she toured with a troupe of 15, complete with five backup singers and a horn section.
Her sound isn't easy to define - her early press materials billed her as a cross between Billie Holiday and Janis Joplin.
Her stage moves were always a bit awkward, but this didn't stop her from appearing on Dancing with the Stars in 2009. She was eliminated in the second round.
Like a canary to a cat, she avoids metaphor and symbolism in her songwriting, preferring to "just say it."
For a few months in 2001, the Philadelphia Weekly published a "Macy Gray Quote Of The Week." Here's an example:

"I have a bronze statue of myself, naked. I have these really big curls and water comes out of every curl. It's hot."

Comments: 3

Annabelle from Eugene, OregonMacy Gray also performed the song whose lyrics start, "Someone once told me the grass is much greener, on the other side!". I think that's from True Jackson VP, right?
Thorsten from Heidelberg, GermanyShe was hired as a studio singer backing serveral pop stars before she herself brougth forht a big hit.
Besides, she appears as herself performing a live concert in the movie Spiderman.
And she contributed her hit single I try to the romantic movie with jennifer aniston Picture Perfect.
Nicholas Thompson from Landover, MdShe sounds like Tina Turner swallowing razors and some whiskey, also she sounds like she's high on crack

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More Songfacts:

What's Up4 Non Blondes

"What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes has endured as one of the most popular songs of the '90s, but it wasn't a huge hit at the time and the band split after one album. Frontwoman Linda Perry went on to write hits for Pink and Christina Aguilera.

You Don't Know How It FeelsTom Petty

MTV reversed the word "joint" in Tom Petty's "You Don't Known How It Feels" so it was unintelligible, but gave the video a VMA anyway.

Take On Mea-ha

"Take On Me" was just a minor hit in Norway until a new version was released with the iconic video, making it a global smash.

In-A-Gadda-Da-VidaIron Butterfly

"In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" was supposed to be titled "In The Garden Of Eden," but someone in the studio wrote down the title phonetically, and it stuck.

Where Did Our Love GoThe Supremes

The Motown team of Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote "Where Did Our Love Go" with The Marvelettes in mind, but they turned it down. When The Supremes recorded the tune, Diana Ross was forced to sing in a lower, breathier style than she was used to because it wasn't written for her.

Shut Up And DanceWalk the Moon

Walk The Moon vocalist Nicholas Petricca got the idea for "Shut Up and Dance" when he and his girlfriend were taking forever to get drinks at a Los Angeles club bar. Petricca was getting frustrated, so his girlfriend told him to "shut up and dance with me!'"