Peter Gabriel Biography

Influential singer, songwriter and musician, Peter Gabriel – originally with the group Genesis before striking out with his solo career – is perhaps best known for the 1986 hit “Sledgehammer” from his album So and its groundbreaking music video style. Peter Gabriel swept the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards with “Sledgehammer”, and to this day, the song has been played more than any other video in the history of MTV.

Prior to So, Peter Gabriel released four self-titled solo albums that included singles, “Solsbury Hill”, “Games Without Frontiers”, “Biko”, and “Shock the Monkey”. Peter Gabriel’s fourth self-titled album was given the name Security when Geffen Records released it in the United States. “Shock the Monkey”, from that album, became Peter Gabriel’s first Top 40 hit, and featured a music video showcasing Gabriel’s penchant for theatrics and originality. Peter Gabriel also wrote, recorded, and remixed material for the 1984 feature film Birdy’s soundtrack.

Besides “Sledgehammer”, the release of hugely successful So in 1986 produced “Big Time”, “Don’t Give Up”, and “In Your Eyes”. So went five times platinum in the US and won Peter Gabriel numerous awards, including three Grammy nominations. Peter Gabriel’s first Grammy award came, however, with his work on Passion, the soundtrack for Martin Scorsese’s controversial 1989 film The Last Temptation of Christ. Peter Gabriel was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Passion.

In 1992, Peter Gabriel’s next release, Us, features background vocals by Sinead O’Connor on the tracks “Come Talk To Me” and “Blood of Eden”, along with the singles “Digging in the Dirt” and “Steam”. Always the innovator, Peter Gabriel used artistic and film techniques to create the promotional materials and documentary film All About Us to promote the album. Gabriel’s following world tour resulted in Secret World Live – a double CD/DVD – released in 1994. Peter Gabriel continued to break ground in the music video category, winning three more Grammy Awards for his video work surrounding Us and Secret World Live.

A number of projects would follow, including film-related projects OVO and Long Walk Home, 2002’s release Up, and two concert DVDs in 2003 and 2004 featuring Melanie Gabriel, Peter Gabriel’s daughter: Growing Up Live and Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped. Peter Gabriel’s Grammy Award-winning song “Down to Earth”, written with Thomas Newman for the WALL-E soundtrack followed in 2008, and in 2010 Scratch My Back was released. Peter Gabriel’s latest release, New Blood, came out in 2011.

Today, Peter Gabriel continues to perform, record, and pursue his humanitarian interests with notable organization such as Amnesty International and WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance.) For his efforts, Gabriel was recently awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of South Australia. On the music front, Gabriel recently received a Grammy nomination for his song “The Veil,” which appears in the Oliver Stone film, Snowden. His cover of the Bowie classic, “Heroes,” is also featured in the Netflix series Stranger Things.