Bryan Adams, OC, OBC (born Bryan Guy Adams, November 5, 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and photographer.
Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 18 Juno Awards among 56 nominations, including wins for Best Male Artist in 2000 and Male Vocalist of the Year in 1997 and every year from 1983 to 1987, as well as Junos for Producer, Composer, and Songwriter of the Year. He has also had 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or Television for "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" in 1992. He has also won MTV, ASCAP, and American Music awards. In addition, he has won two Ivor Novello Awards and has been nominated for several Golden Globe Awards and three times for Academy Awards for his songwriting for films.
Adams was awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world. He is a well known photographer.

Early years

Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario, to English parents. From his grandmother he also inherited a Maltese ancestry. As Adams's father was a diplomat, he grew up travelling around the world with his parents. Subsequently, most of his youth was spent growing up in England, Israel, Portugal, and Austria, part of the time in Birre, Portugal, situated close to Lisbon. In 1973, Adams's family returned to Canada and settled down in North Vancouver, British Columbia.He moved to Ottawa, Ontario and attended Henry Munro Middle School. His musical goals began during his teenage years, and as he explained to Carlo D'Agostino from Rolling Stone magazine, "In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls."[citation needed] He washed dishes, sold pet food, and worked in record stores, and at the age of 15, Adams quit school to play in nightclubs with bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd, who released an album called If Wishes Were Horses with the fifteen year old Adams as lead singer.

In 1978, at the age of 18, Adams sent a few demo recordings to A&M Records in Toronto. Not long afterwards he signed with them for the sum of one dollar.
Some of the first demos written in 1978 have surfaced over the years, most notably "I'm Ready" (recorded for both the album Cuts Like a Knife and later his release for MTV Unplugged) and "Remember", which was recorded on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists even before his first album was released. Also recorded during this time was Adams's first single, "Let Me Take You Dancing," which made the Canadian RPM chart in March 1979 (the b-side was entitled "Don't Turn Me Away").

Influence and legacy

Adams is considered highly influential in the Canadian music industry. Adams is the best-selling Canadian male artist of all time. He holds the distinction of being the first Canadian artist to sell one million copies of his album in his homeland, achieving this twice with Waking Up the Neighbours and Reckless.
Adams is also the owner of one the biggest hits of all time, "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You". It is often known as the biggest hit of the 90's and holds the record for the longest running no. 1 in UK singles chart history (4 months). "Summer of 69" and "Run To You" have become rock radio staples. The album Reckless is considered by some to be a landmark recording of the 80's and for melodic rock.

Social activist

Most of Adams's philanthropic activity is dedicated to his foundation "The Bryan Adams Foundation", which aims to advance education and learning opportunities for children and young people worldwide, believing that an education is the best gift that a child can be given. The Foundation’s area of support is broad and far-reaching, enabling grants to be given for projects supporting the elderly, victims of war and natural disasters, and those suffering from mental or physical illness. The foundation is completely funded by his photographic activities.

Since the 1980s, Adams has participated in concerts and other activities to help raise money and awareness for a variety of causes. His first high profile charity appearance came in 1985 when he opened the US transmission of Live Aid from Philadelphia.
In June of the next year, Adams participated in the two-week Amnesty International "A Conspiracy of Hope" tour alongside Sting, U2 and Peter Gabriel.
His next appearance for Amnesty was in February 1987 on Rock For Amnesty with Paul McCartney, Sting and Dire Straits, among others.
Playing in the U.S. section of Live Aid, Adams did not get the chance to play at Wembley Stadium; however, another opportunity came in June 1987 when Adams played there at the 5th Annual Prince's Trust Rock Gala along with Elton John, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and others. Adams was to return to Wembley Stadium the following year when he performed at the Nelson Mandela birthday party concert.
Adams helped commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall when, in 1990, he joined many other guests (including his songwriting partner Michael Kamen) for Roger Waters' massive performance of The Wall in Berlin, Germany.
He performed the Pink Floyd songs What Shall We Do Now? and Young Lust during the performance of The Wall, and then joined Waters, Joni Mitchell, Cyndi Lauper, Van Morrison, Paul Carrack and others to perform Waters' "The Tide Is Turning" to close the concert. His version of Young Lust, which was partially re-recorded for the album due to technical problems during the live concert, peaked at #7 at Mainstream Rock Tracks.
On the 24 April 1993, Adams joined Farm Aid VI alongside Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Ringo Starr.
On January 29, 2005, Adams joined the CBC benefit concert in Toronto for victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Twenty years after performing at Live Aid in the USA, Adams played at Canada's Live 8 show in Barrie, Ontario.
Later that year, he performed in Qatar and raised £1.5M ($2,617,000) from the concert and the auction of a guitar that had been signed by many of the world's most prominent guitarists for this occasion.

As a photographer

Adams has had his photographs published in British Vogue, L'uomo Vogue, Vanity Fair, Harper's Bazaar, Esquire, Interview magazine and i-D, among others.[50] His other photographic efforts include publishing Zoo Magazine, the fashion/art magazine based in Berlin, Germany. On June 1, 2005, he published his first book of photos in the United States with Calvin Klein called American Women; proceeds from this book go to breast cancer research for programs at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He released a similar book of photos called Made In Canada in December 1999 followed by Haven in 2000. All of his books were dedicated to his friend Donna, who died of the disease.
As a photographer, Adams has worked with many of his musical peers, including Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, Robert Plant, Joss Stone, Placido Domingo, Celine Dion, Billy Idol, Moby, Amy Winehouse, t.A.T.u., Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel, Lenny Kravitz and Morrissey to name a few. On November 27, 2000 Bryan played onstage with The Who at the Royal Albert Hall. A DVD of the concert was issued. Bryan photographed the band and his photos appear in the DVD booklet.
In 2002, Adams was invited, along with other photographers from the Commonwealth, to photograph Queen Elizabeth II during her Golden Jubilee; one of the photographs from this session was used as a Canadian postage stamp in 2004 and again in 2005 (see Queen Elizabeth II definitive stamp (Canada)), another portrait of both Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Bryan Adams supports the Hear the World initiative as a photographer in its aim to raise global awareness for the topic of hearing and hearing loss. Adams has been shooting the covers for their magazine, a quarterly culture and lifestyle publication dedicated to the topic of hearing.