Fiona Apple

Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart, known by her stage name, Fiona Apple, is a singer-songwriter, pianist, and poet. An eight-time Grammy Award nominee and one-time winner, her albums have reached the top five on the U.S. chart in four consecutive decades.

The youngest daughter of actor Brandon Maggart, Apple was born in New York City but was raised alternating between New York and her father's home in Los Angeles. Classically trained on piano as a child, she began composing her own songs when she was eight years old.

Apple was raped when she was 12 years old, leading her to develop an eating disorder, as she began to see her developing body as "bait" for predators. Apple has subtly alluded to her rape in some of her musical output, including the song "Sullen Girl."

Her debut album, Tidal, containing songs written when she was 17, was released in 1996 and received a Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Rock Performance for the single "Criminal." She followed that album with her sophomore release, 1999's When the Pawn..., produced by Jon Brion, which was also critically and commercially successful and was certified platinum.

For her third album, 2005's Extraordinary Machine, Apple initially collaborated with Brion again and began recording the album in 2002. However, Apple was reportedly unhappy with the production and opted not to release the record, leading fans to protest Epic Records, erroneously believing that the label was withholding its release. The album was eventually re-produced without Brion and released in October 2005. The album was certified gold, and nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. In 2012, she released her fourth studio album, The Idler Wheel..., which received critical praise and was followed by a tour of the United States and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 2013. In 2017, Apple released the song "Tiny Hands" for the Women's March on Washington. "Tiny Hands," which The New Yorker called "blunt and infectious," is a protest song addressing President Trump's personal transgressions and the threat his presidency marks to women's reproductive rights.

Apple's fifth studio album, Fetch the Bolt Cutters, was released in 2020 to widespread acclaim. Fetch the Bolt Cutters was the first album to receive a perfect 10 from Pitchfork since Kanye's 2010 album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.