Vanessa Carlton Quote

Vanessa Lee Carlton (born August 16, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter and pianist. Her debut album, Be Not Nobody (2002), was released by A&M Records and peaked at number five on the Billboard 200. It spawned the hit song "A Thousand Miles", which spent 41 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 and earned three Grammy nominations, and the singles "Ordinary Day" and "Pretty Baby". Her next album, Harmonium (2004), debuted at number 33 on the Billboard 200. After A&M pressured Carlton and influenced Harmonium, she departed the label in 2005.
Carlton released her third album, Heroes & Thieves (2007), to minimal chart success but praise from Metacritic, AllMusic, PopMatters, and USA Today. She independently produced her next two albums, Rabbits on the Run (2011) and Liberman (2015), both of which were acclaimed by critics for its personal subject matter and departure from her previous musical style. She made her Broadway debut with a leading role in the Carole King musical Beautiful (2019), and followed this with the release of sixth studio album, Love Is an Art (2020). In 2025, Billboard ranked Carlton among the best female artists of the 21st century.