Eva Cassidy

As I was listening to Emi Fujita’s songs on YouTube, I came across Eva Cassidy.

Eva Cassidy is hardly known in Japan, and almost all of her CDs available here are imports. I had never heard her songs—or even her name—before. But her beautiful voice and remarkable musical sensitivity have the power to captivate listeners instantly.

Eva Cassidy was born in Washington, D.C. in 1963 and grew up in Maryland. She had an interest in both art and music from childhood. When she was nine, her father began teaching her to play the guitar. At eleven, she joined a local band as a singer. In 1992, at the age of twenty‑nine, she released her first album, a duet album. Still, her name was known only in the Washington, D.C. area.

In 1994, she was diagnosed with skin cancer. In 1996, Eva Cassidy passed away at the age of just thirty‑three.

In 2000, the BBC broadcast her performance of Over the Rainbow, and it caused a sensation across Europe and eventually around the world. She became known as a legendary, tragic songbird.

  



Fields of Gold is a 1993 song by the British musician Sting, and it has been covered by many artists. I especially like the versions by Emi Fujita and Eva Cassidy. 

 

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