PAULA COLE Biography - Musicians

 
 

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PAULA COLE

Name: Paula Cole                                                                                 
Born: 5 April 1968 Rockport, Massachusetts                                                       
                                                                                                 
Paula Cole (born April 5, 1968 in Rockport, Massachusetts) is an American singer/songwriter.     
Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" reached the top ten of the                         
Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for                     
Best New Artist.                                                                                 
                                                                                                 
Cole was born to Stephanie, a visual artist, and Jim Cole, a polka-playing                       
entomologist. She has a sister named Irene. She lived in Rockport, MA with her                   
parents, where she attended Elementary School. Although some                                     
press stories focused on Cole being an unpopular and lonely child during her                     
schooling in Rockport High School, this is almost purely fiction. She was,                       
according to her press sources, from middle school on, a very popular student,                   
holding office as class president and student counselor. In addition, she was                   
very active in the school's theatre arts program, starring in many productions,                 
among them "Flower Drum Song" and "Whose Life Is It Anyway?". She was a French                   
Club member and traveled to France as part of a well-established exchange                       
program founded by Foreign Language department head Mary Hayes. Cole entered the                 
Berklee College of Music in Boston when she was 18, where she studied jazz                       
singing and improvisation.                                                                       
                                                                                                 
Cole got her first big professional break when she was invited to perform on                     
Peter Gabriel's 1993-1994 Secret World Live tour. Shortly after this, she was                   
signed on with her first record company Imago Records. Through this record                       
company, she released her first album Harbinger in 1994. Within that year of                     
Harbinger's release, Imago Records went out of business. This prevented Cole's                   
album from getting radio exposure. However, she wasn't without a record company                 
for long. In 1995, she was signed on to Warner Bros. Records. The record company                 
reissued Harbinger in the Fall of 1995.