One of the busiest singer-songwriters in the music industry, Kingston, Ontario-born Bryan Adams (b. Nov. 1959) has enjoyed major success on three levels: as a songwriter who's written hits for other artists; as a recording artist whose own work has met huge international acclaim; and as a captivating live performer, whose memorable appearances at Live-Aid and on Amnesty International's Conspiracy Of Hope tour helped cement his status as an international superstar. Adams's songs, in fact, helped pave the way for his own record deal. While performing with a local Vancouver group as a teen, Adams met drummer Jim Vallance in 1977 and immediately began a songwriting partnership that still functions today. The pair's songs-typically an appealing blend of hard-edged rock and sweet, hook-heavy pop--were soon being covered by many artists looking for new material. By 1978, A&M Canada had signed Adams - but ironically, considering Adams's rock roots, his label debut was a dance single called "Let Me Take You Dancing" which reportedly sped up Adams's voice electronically and "made me sound like a chipmunk," he complained later. Directionally, it was a fluke for the artist, and wasn't included on his self-titled debut album, which was co-produced by Adams and Vallance and released in 1980.  Adams's first major hit came in 1983, with his own version of a track he had written three years earlier. "Straight From The Heart" had, in fact, appeared in very similar form on singer Ian Lloyd's 1980 album 3WC (as did, for that matter, the Adams/Vallance song "Lonely Nights"). From Adams's third album, the pivotal Cuts Like A Knife, "Straight" soared to the top 10 and led the way for two more hits, "Cuts Like A Knife" and "This Time." In what must have been harrowing for Adams--but inarguably productive--the singer spent 283 full days on the road in '83, promoting the album and, clearly, himself as a performing property. The payoff? His quintuple-platinum follow-up, 1984's Reckless, which held the No. 1 slot for two weeks and held a staggering six top 20 singles--including Adams's first-ever No. 1 single, "Heaven," also found on the soundtrack to 20th Century-Fox's 1983 film A Night In Heaven. Further notice that Adams had internationally arrived came via his July '85 Live-Aid performance, viewed by millions; Adams's energetic duet with Tina Turner on "It's Only Love"--the Reckless single was later nudged up the charts to No. 15. Also keeping Adams in the international spotlight was his work on 1985's Ethiopian famine relief single "Tears Are Not Enough," by Canadian superstar group Northern Lights.  While Adams's 1987 album Into The Fire couldn't accurately be called a failure--it did surpass platinum, it did contain three singles that hit the Top 40--it wasn't the sales monster many in the industry had expected. Regardless, Adams continued to maintain a high profile during the late '80s via his spot on the Amnesty International tour, as well as appearances at the Prince's Trust Charity, the 1988 London Freedomfest honoring Nelson Mandela, and Roger Waters's 1990 production of The Wall in Berlin.  Anyone predicting a downward slide for Adams's career got a powerful wake-up call in 1991. From the hit film Prince Of Thieves came the record of Adams's career--"(Everything I Do) I Do It For You," a No. 1 for seven weeks in the US, four months at No. 1 in the UK and the biggest-selling single in the history of A&M Records. It helped boost Adams's long-awaited album Waking Up The Neighbours past the triple-platinum mark, and pushed him back into superstar-selling range once more. And with that album, keen-eyed observers noticed a change: Adams's new producer, Robert John "Mutt" Lange, was now also his new songwriting partner, co-credited on each song, including four also co-credited to longtime Adams crony Jim Vallance. Why the change? At one point early in his career, Bryan Adams had said, "If you ask me what I do for a living, I'd have to say that I'm a songwriter first." Adams would later have massive success with the singles "All For Love"--a platinum track sung with Sting and Rod Stewart, from the Three Musketeers soundtrack--and the 1995 No. 1 hit "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?" He released On A Day Like Today in October of 1998, MTV Unplugged in 1999 and The Best Of Me in 2000 to commemorate his 22 years of songwriting and performing. His latest album of songs was released in 2002 from the Dreamworks Animated film Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimmaron.