Natalie Merchant

Tigerlily

After her split with 10,000 Maniacs, Merchant was so eager to begin writing her own material that she went home that very day and composed the song "I May Know the Word", which was originally meant to appear on the soundtrack to the Tom Hanks movie Philadelphia. The third song on the album, "Beloved Wife", was featured as the first song in the trailer for the film Message in a Bottle.

Tigerlily was a critical and commercial success, spawning her first Top 10 hit in the single "Carnival", and achieving Top 40 success with subsequent singles "Wonder" and "Jealousy". The album would go on to sell more than five million copies, and continues to be Merchant's most successful album to date. She did extensive touring for it and made numerous television appearances, including performances on Saturday Night Live, at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and on late-night talk shows. The media's immediate and critical effect on culture and cultural icons was of particular interest to Merchant. In "River", a song from Tigerlily, Merchant defends River Phoenix as she castigates the media for systematically dissecting the child actor after his death.

Ophelia (1998–1999)

Three years passed before Merchant released her second solo album, Ophelia. While Tigerlily contained sparse instrumentation, the music on Ophelia had lusher arrangements. The reprise at the close of the album featured a symphonic arrangement composed and conducted by British composer Gavin Bryars with whom she would collaborate nine years later to put Shakespeare's sonnets to music. Merchant treated the recording of Ophelia as a series of workshops, where she would invite various musicians she had met over the years into her home studio to collaborate and record. The name of the album and the title track are a literary reference to Shakespeare's Ophelia.

The first single off the album was "Kind and Generous", which received extensive airplay on VH1 and which solidified Merchant's role as a solo artist. That summer, Sarah McLachlan invited Merchant to co-headline the year's biggest music festival with her, Lilith Fair. The exposure from the tour helped the album reach Platinum status in just under a year, with subsequent singles "Break Your Heart" and "Life Is Sweet" receiving moderate airplay on adult contemporary stations. No video was filmed for the latter, however, with a clip from Merchant's appearance on VH1 Storytellers being used instead. She would also go on to appear on PBS' Sessions at West 54th before the year's end, and VH1's Hard Rock Live in March of 1999. In 1998, Merchant also recorded George Gershwin's "But Not for Me" for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody, a tribute to George Gershwin, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease.

The Ophelia tour ended in 1999 with the final few shows being performed and recorded on Broadway. The performance would be released as the album Natalie Merchant: Live in Concert with a companion video of the same name. The performance was notable in that it featured numerous covers including songs by David Bowie, Neil Young, and Katell Keineg.

In 1998, Merchant collaborated on the making of the album Mermaid Avenue with Billy Bragg and Wilco, which set previously unreleased Guthrie lyrics to music by Bragg. She provided lead vocals for the song "Birds and Ships" and backing vocals for "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key", and returned for the second volume of the album, 2000s Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, providing vocals on the song "I Was Born".

American folk music tour (2000) and Motherland (2001) In 2000, Merchant embarked on a folk tour in the United States with many shows being supported by alt-country band Wilco.

Merchant's next studio album on the Elektra label was Motherland, released in 2001. Motherland saw Merchant at her most experimental musically. Motherland achieved Gold on the Billboard charts after debuting at No. 30 on the Billboard 200 and No. 13 on the Top Internet Albums of 2001, respectively. Rolling Stone favored this album with stars, and also noticed a difference in Merchant's voice, which was more deep and gritty like that of Sade than her previous albums. Singles that were released from Motherland were "Just Can't Last", "Build a Levee" and "Tell Yourself".

Merchant embarked on a year-and-a-half-long world tour to promote Motherland. The first leg of the tour started in Minneapolis, Minnesota on October 17, 2001, with performances across the United States, and heading to Europe with some special acoustic shows in Europe. Merchant also participated in the Rock am Ring Festival and Rock im Park in 2002. In the summer of 2002, she was paired with Chris Isaak and played at stadiums and arenas.

The House Carpenter's Daughter (2003)

After her contract with Elektra expired in August 2002, Merchant decided not to sign with them again, or any other major label. and is a compilation of five years of inspiration from a "conversation" with her daughter over the "first 6 years of her life". The album debuted on the Billboard Top 200 at No. 17, Billboard Folk Albums at No. 1, Amazon.com at No.1, and iTunes, No. 3. The album was co-produced by Andres Levin.

Merchant contributed a recording of Buddy Holly's "Learning the Game" to the tribute album Listen to Me: Buddy Holly, released September 6, 2011.

Natalie Merchant (2014) In February 2014, Merchant announced her eponymous album. The album consists of new works. It is her first collection of original material since 2001's Motherland. Natalie Merchant was released May 6, 2014, on Nonesuch Records and was named Album of the Week by The Daily Telegraph. The album debuted at No. 20 on Billboards Top 200 albums and No. 2 on Billboards Folk Albums charts for the week of May 24, 2014. She toured from July 3, 2014, kicking off in Kingston, New York, concluding at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee on July 25, 2014.

Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings (2015) In 2015, Merchant released an album of new recordings of the songs from her multi-platinum solo album. She enhanced many of the tracks with strings and stripped others bare. She says: "The distance this music traveled once it left my hands is humbling, and I am moved by how many lives it has touched along the way."

Butterfly (2017) In 2017, Merchant released Butterfly, a collection of new songs and orchestral versions of previously recorded songs.

Keep Your Courage (2023) On April 14, 2023, Merchant released her eighth studio album, Keep Your Courage, via Nonesuch Records. It was her first album with new material since her 2014 eponymous album Natalie Merchant.

In 2025, Merchant appeared in the feature documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story , which reflects on the legacy of the all-female music festival.

Cabinet of Wonders (2026) Merchant will release a digital album, A Cabinet of Wonders, on August 21, 2026. The album, a collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Children’s Theatre, is made up of a collection of seventeen songs and accompanying videos reimagining Mother Goose rhymes for a new generation, as well as three originals by Merchant.

Personal life Merchant met Michael Stipe of the band R.E.M. in 1983. The two became close friends and eventually had a romantic relationship. They credit each other as inspirations for some of their songwriting. In an interview with The Independent, Stipe said, "Natalie was really the reason my work became politicised in the late Eighties."

In 2003, Merchant married Daniel de la Calle and had a daughter named Lucia. In an interview in 2012, she indicated that she was divorced. She currently lives in Rhinecliff, New York.

Merchant enjoys gardening and painting.

She now teaches arts and crafts to underprivileged children in New York state. It was during this time in Troy, New York, that she built the foundation of what became by 2023 the Cabinet of Wonder, a web-based multimedia project based on the Mother Goose collection. It is a collaboration with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Children’s Theatre and Manual Cinema and part of a pilot experiment with the National Head Start Association and Chicago Public Schools.

Activism In 2012, Merchant, along with actor and writer Mark Ruffalo, organized a concert to protest against oil and gas fracking in New York state. A documentary, written and directed by Jon Bowermaster, was made of the event and titled Dear Governor Cuomo. She directed a short 2013 documentary titled Shelter: A Concert Film to Benefit Victims of Domestic Violence, that shone light on a group of women living in the mid-Hudson region of New York State responding to the crisis of domestic violence in their community with compassion and creativity. It was inspired by an event for One Billion Rising, a global campaign calling for an end to violence against women, held on February 14, 2013. Merchant presented a screening of the film at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston, New York, on the day of One Billion Rising for Justice.

Merchant, an outspoken critic of then-President-elect Donald Trump, participated in an anti-Trump protest organized by Ruffalo and Michael Moore, held outside Trump International Hotel and Tower in New York City on January 19, 2017. Merchant performed her single "Motherland". She concluded the event with a group sing-along of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land". The event was covered by CNN and broadcast live.

Merchant is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and has worked with them in the past on awareness campaigns.

Awards and nominations

"Carnival"

"Wonder" "Jealousy" 1999 "Kind & Generous"

10,000 Maniacs Top Alternative Crossover Artist

MTV Unplugged Top Pop Album

Top Pop/Rock Female Artist

Top Alternative Female Artist Tigerlily Top Pop Album

Small Hall Tour of the Year

Surprise Hot Ticket Of The Year Next Major Arena Headliner 1996 Herself Small Hall Tour Of The Year

2010 Cambridge Folk Festival Best Headline Performance Discography

With 10,000 Maniacs Human Conflict Number Five (EP) (1982) Secrets of the I Ching (1983) The Wishing Chair (1985) In My Tribe (1987) Blind Man's Zoo (1989) Hope Chest: The Fredonia Recordings 1982–1983 (1990) Our Time in Eden (1992) MTV Unplugged (1993) Campfire Songs: The Popular, Obscure and Unknown Recordings (2004)

Solo

1995: Tigerlily 1998: Ophelia 2001: Motherland 2003: The House Carpenter's Daughter 2010: Leave Your Sleep 2014: Natalie Merchant 2015: Paradise Is There: The New Tigerlily Recordings 2017: Butterfly 2023: Keep Your Courage 2026: Cabinet of Wonder

Filmography

Films

Television Year Title Role Notes 1985 The Tube Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (Channel 4) "My Mother the War" and "Can't Ignore the Train" 1988 Saturday Night Live Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (NBC) Aired February 27, 1988; "Peace Train" and "Like the Weather" 1989 The Arsenio Hall Show Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (CBS) "Eat for Two" 1990 MTV Unplugged Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (MTV) 1992 Saturday Night Live Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (NBC) "Candy Everybody Wants" and "These Are Days" 1993 MTV Unplugged Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) (MTV) First artist to make second appearance 1993 Rock & Roll Inaugural Ball Herself (as 10,000 Maniacs) 1993 MTV Video Music Awards Herself – presenter (MTV) TV special 1995 Concert for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Herself – performer "I Know How to Do It" 1995 Saturday Night Live Herself – performer (NBC) Host David Schwimmer 1996 Late Show with David Letterman Herself – performer (NBC) Host David Letterman "Wonder" 1997 Sessions at West 54th Herself – performer (PBS) "Planctus" with Philip Glass 1998 Saturday Night Live Herself – performer (NBC) Host Matthew Broderick 1998 Hard Rock Live Herself – performer (VH1) 1998 VH1 Storytellers Herself – performer (VH1) Later released as DVD 1998 Sessions at West 54th Herself – performer (NBC) Host David Byrne 1999 Man in the Sand Herself Video documentary 1999 Late Night with Conan O'Brien Musical guest (NBC) "Life Is Sweet" 1999 Lifetime's Intimate Portrait Herself (Lifetime) Biographical 2000 ABC 2000: The Millennium Herself – performer (ABC) "Kind and Generous" 2001 Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words & Music Herself – performer "Nowhere Man" 2001 Up Close and Personal Herself – performer (Oxygen) 2002 Austin City Limits Herself – performer (PBS) 2003 Go Further Herself Documentary 2010 Good Morning America Herself – performer (ABC News) 2015 The Today Show Herself – performer (NBC News) 2016 The Andrew Marr Show Herself – performer (BBC) "Where I Go" 2019 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Herself – performer (NBC) "These Are the Days"

Talk show Year One Hour with Jonathan Ross 12 November 1989 The Arsenio Hall Show 1989 Late Show with David Letterman 1995, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2001, 2004 The Rosie O'Donnell Show 1996, 1996, 1998, 1998, 1999, 1999, 2001, 2002 The Tonight Show with Jay Leno 1992, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2010 The Katie Show 2014 The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon 2019