When Alannah Myles played the role of a young aspiring singer on an episode of The Kids Of Degrassi Street, it was more than just an act. Less than a decade later, the daughter of Canadian Hall Of Fame Broadcaster William Douglas Byles would be a Grammy and Juno Award-winning singer best known for her 1990 international hit “Black Velvet”.

Myles (who changed her last name from Byles as a teen) began writing songs at nine and was participating in Toronto’s Kiwanis Music Festival at twelve. While gigging solo at nineteen across southern Ontario, songwriter/musician Christopher Ward invited her to form a rock and blues cover band with him. During this time Ward became MuchMusic’s first VJ.

Ward spent seven years trying to get Myles signed. He produced a three song demo for her, and her entertainment lawyer Stephen Stohn came up with the idea of making a ‘video demo’ of Myles singing “Just One Kiss”. This finally attracted Warner Music Canada in 1987. The demo was passed along to Warner’s US affiliate labels and Atlantic Records also took interest.

Her first album Alannah Myles was released in 1989. Its first single “Love Is” peaked at #16 in Canada that year, making her a national star. But it was her second single (her first outside of Canada) “Black Velvet” – written by Ward in ‘87 while traveling to Graceland on a project for a MuchMusic – that made her an international sensation. In early 1990, the song topped the charts in four countries and reached the top 5 in six others. “Love Is” was then released outside of Canada an found various levels of success, including a #36 peak in the US. “Still Got This Thing” did well in Canada and New Zealand. “Lover Of Mine” reached #2 in Canada and found modest success overseas.

Myles toured the world relentlessly for eighteen months before releasing her sophomore album Rockinghorse in 1992. In Canada, it produced the chart-topping “Song Instead Of A Kiss” plus three additional top 40’s, but despite winning awards and earning Myles another Grammy nomination, the album made little impact elsewhere. Years later, CBC would comment that after her second album, “Alannah Myles literally dropped off the map”.

A-lan-nah followed in 1995 and its lead single “Family Secret” hit #10 in Canada but accomplished little more, prompting Atlantic to drop Myles in 1997. Her then-manager Miles Copeland signed her to his own Ark 21 label and released her fourth album Arival that year. Its single “Bad 4 You” was a top 40 hit in Canada. The following year, The National Post wrote an article claiming Myles' career had gone off the rails due to cocaine usage. She filed suit and they settled out of court, with the newspaper issuing an apology with the statement, “The National Post does not suggest that Ms. Myles had ever taken cocaine.”

Myles spent the next decade rather quietly, only releasing a couple new songs on two best of compilations. She regained national attention in 2008 when she explained to a CBC interviewer that her original recording contract had left her without money and in debt, and she’d been living destitute for some time. That year, Myles released Black Velvet, which includes a re-recorded version of the title track, a new single “Comment Ca Va”, and “Anywhere But Home” featuring slide guitar by Jeff Healey. It would eventually be re-released on Myles' own record label Fascinate Inc five years later with extra tracks and in a different order.

In 2011, Myles revealed she had undergone hundreds of chiropractic treatments over the previous few years that left her unable to move her neck and head. At a summer festival performance that year, she was carried onto the stage and seated on a piano bench with two canes.

In 2014, 85 BPM surfaced featuring versions of her older songs including three of “Black Velvet”. When Myles was asked in 2018 if she was working on new music, she replied:

For the last decade, I’ve been working on my version of what a raw, soulful Blues record might sound like. I’m searching for the right producer to remote record a couple of tracks I’ve written that I’d like to release digitally with Tunecore Distribution so there’s new Alannah Myles music available in all sales forums. All in due course.