Bryan Adams

Bryan Adams is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and photographer from Kingston, Ontario. He is known for rock and pop rock songs, and for a career that spans recording, touring and songwriting. He sells an estimated 75 million to more than 100 million records worldwide and is among the best-selling music artists. He also becomes the most-played artist on Canadian radio during the 2010s.

Early life and background

Adams is born to Elizabeth Jane Watson and Conrad J. Adams, English immigrants who move to Canada from Plymouth in the 1950s. Through his father’s diplomatic and military career, he spends parts of his childhood in Portugal, Israel, Japan, South Korea and the United Kingdom. He is raised in Ottawa and later moves with his mother and younger brother to North Vancouver in 1974. As a teenager he develops an interest in rock music, learns guitar, leaves school at 15 and joins the glam rock band Sweeney Todd as lead vocalist.

Songwriting and recording career

In 1977, Adams records the album If Wishes Were Horses with Sweeney Todd. In 1978 he begins a songwriting partnership with Jim Vallance. Their collaboration produces songs for Adams and for other artists including Kiss, Tina Turner, Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt, Rod Stewart, Bonnie Tyler, Loverboy, Carly Simon and Neil Diamond. Adams signs with A&M Records in 1978 and releases the single “Let Me Take You Dancing” in 1979.

His first solo album, Bryan Adams, appears in 1980. He gains wider recognition with Cuts Like a Knife in 1983, which includes “Straight from the Heart” and “Cuts Like a Knife”. His fourth studio album, Reckless (1984), becomes a major commercial success and features “Run to You”, “Summer of ’69”, “Heaven”, “Somebody”, “One Night Love Affair” and “It’s Only Love”, a duet with Tina Turner. Reckless becomes the first album by a Canadian artist to be certified Diamond in Canada.

In 1991, Adams releases “(Everything I Do) I Do It for You”, which reaches number one in at least 19 countries and spends 16 consecutive weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart. The song appears on Waking Up the Neighbours, which tops charts internationally and sells approximately 16 million copies worldwide. Other singles from the album include “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started”, “Do I Have to Say the Words?” and “Thought I’d Died and Gone to Heaven”.

During the 1990s, he releases the ballads “Please Forgive Me” and “All for Love”, the latter recorded with Rod Stewart and Sting, as well as “Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?”. He also releases 18 til I Die (1996), MTV Unplugged (1997) and On a Day Like Today (1998), which includes “When You’re Gone”, a duet with Melanie C.

In the 2000s, Adams continues recording and touring internationally. He contributes songs to the soundtrack of the animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002), releases Room Service (2004) and later 11 (2008). He also collaborates with a range of artists and takes part in charity and benefit concerts.

In the 2010s, he releases the live acoustic album Bare Bones (2010), the covers album Tracks of My Years (2014), Get Up (2015) and Shine a Light (2019). He also co-writes the music and lyrics for Pretty Woman: The Musical, which premieres on Broadway in 2018 and later opens in London’s West End.

In the 2020s, Adams releases So Happy It Hurts (2022), along with the re-recorded collections Classic and Classic Pt II the same year. In 2024, he launches his own label, Bad Records. After the release of Roll with the Punches in 2025, he begins the associated tour, which continues into 2026.

Photography, charity and honours

Alongside music, Adams works as a photographer, publishing photographic work and exhibiting internationally. He also supports charitable and humanitarian causes, including famine relief, environmental issues and disaster assistance.

He receives 20 Juno Awards and a Grammy Award, along with multiple Grammy, Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominations. He is inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Canada’s Walk of Fame, the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame, the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2010, he receives the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.