Peter Gabriel | Biography, Albums, Songs, Genesis, & Facts | Britannica (original) (raw)

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February 13, 1950, Woking, Surrey, England

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Peter Gabriel (born February 13, 1950, Woking, Surrey, England) is a British musician who was the lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis before embarking on a successful career as a solo artist. He is known for the intelligence and depth of his lyrics and for his commitment to various political causes.

GenesisGenesis (from left to right): Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Tony Banks, Mike Rutherford, and Steve Hackett, 1974.

Gabriel left Genesis in 1975 and developed a deep interest in world music rhythms and textures, reflected in four eponymous albums (the last, released in 1982, was titled Security for its American release), while songs like “Games Without Frontiers” and “Biko” announced his political convictions. This two-sided involvement in Third World affairs led to his cofounding of the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts and Dance) Festival in 1982 and Real World Records in 1989. His 1986 album, So, was a more personal statement; strengthened by the contributions of Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, and Senegalese pop star Youssou N’Dour, it brought Gabriel critical acclaim and was a multimillion-seller. His next album, Passion: Music for “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1989), featured a number of African and Middle Eastern artists (several of whom released albums with Real World) and won a Grammy Award. Gabriel’s work also has been marked by an imaginative visual component. His performances with Genesis were noted for their supreme theatricality, and his music videos set new standards for the nascent medium; the video for “Sledgehammer” was voted best video of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 1993, and two of Gabriel’s other videos, based on his 1992 album Us, won Grammy Awards in 1992 and 1993.

In 1994 Gabriel released Xplora 1, one of the first multimedia CD-ROMs created by a mainstream artist, and six years later he composed OVO, a multimedia presentation for London’s Millennium Dome. In 2000 Gabriel showed that he remained ahead of the technological curve when he founded On Demand Distribution, an Internet service that became one of Europe’s leading online music providers; he later sold the company for $38 million. New material emerged in a slow trickle from the Real World studios as Gabriel contributed single songs to film sound tracks or appeared as a guest performer on other artists’ albums. In 2002 he released Long Walk Home, his score to the film Rabbit-Proof Fence, and he followed later that year with Up, his first full-length studio release in 10 years. The former recalled his work on Passion, while the latter was a dark meditation on loss and longing.

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The year 2008 saw the realization of Big Blue Ball, a world music project that had been 17 years in the making, and the resulting album featured performances by Gabriel, Sinead O’Connor, Joseph Arthur, and a host of international artists. Gabriel once again distinguished himself for his sound track work with Pixar Animation’s WALL∙E (2008). Collaborating with composer Thomas Newman, Gabriel crafted “Down to Earth,” an upbeat track that won the Grammy Award for best song written for a motion picture in 2009. He later released Scratch My Back (2010), on which he performed orchestrally arranged songs by musicians he admired; several of them in turn covered songs by Gabriel on And I’ll Scratch Yours (2013). Symphonic orchestration also adorned New Blood (2011), on which Gabriel himself reinterpreted selections from his catalog. Live Blood, a recording of a 2011 concert, was released in 2012. He released two compilation albums in 2019: Rated PG, a collection of songs he had contributed to movies, and Flotsam and Jetsam, consisting of B-sides, rarities, and previously unreleased songs.

In 2008 Gabriel received the Ambassador of Conscience award from Amnesty International for the decades of support he had given that organization. The following year the Royal Swedish Academy of Music conveyed upon him the Polar Music Prize for lifetime achievement, stating that Gabriel had “redefined the very concept” of popular music. Gabriel was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Genesis (2010) and as a solo artist (2014).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.