Candice Night

Candice Night (born May 8, 1971) is an American vocalist/lyricist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist for the traditional folk rock project, Blackmore's Night since its origins in 1997, and wife of guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Career edit: Born in Hauppauge, Long Island, New York, she took piano lessons for a couple of years. She began modeling as "Loren" at 12 years of age. She appeared in everything from commercials to print ads, and promoted products at trade shows until her 20s. Night also had a job of her own radio show at a rock music radio station on Long Island, and attended at New York Institute of Technology where she studied communications. She was once a Rainbow fan, so she met Ritchie Blackmore to ask him for an autograph in 1989. They became friends and lived together from 1991. She provided humming backing vocals on instrumental track "Difficult to Cure" in 1993's European tour of Deep Purple. She also briefly provided humming backing vocals on "Ariel" and "Hall of the Mountain King" for Stranger in Us All, the CD by Rainbow, as well as writing lyrics for four songs on the aforementioned album. Despite her being inexperienced as a professional lead singer, Blackmore encouraged her to become his musical partner. She then wrote lyrics for most songs for the first Blackmore's Night album, Shadow of the Moon where she supplied lead vocals. Those songs were written with her voice in his mind. Night has also composed some songs, including "Now and Then" on Under a Violet Moon (1999) and "3 Black Crows" and "Ivory Tower" on Ghost of a Rose (2003). Since then, she has been awarded some gold albums and other awards for the music of Blackmore's Night, and has charted internationally with his music. Their 2008 release, Secret Voyage, entered at #1 on the New Age Billboard Charts and stayed there for four weeks, and then held on in the top 10 for an additional 14 weeks. She continues to widen her musical horizons, performing both on CDs and live in concert, not only writing lyrics and singing, but playing medieval instruments: shawm, cornamuse, rauschpfeife, pennywhistle, and chanters. Night also sang on Helloween's "Light the Universe" song from their Keeper of the Seven Keys - The Legacy album, And She also appeared In Helloween's music video for that track. She played the part of Oria in the rock opera Story of Aina, with Sass Jordan and Glenn Hughes. She sang three songs on the Beto Vázquez album Infinity with Tarja Turunen from Nightwish and Sabine Edelsbacher from Edenbridge. The Blackmore's Night song "Old Mill Inn" was heard in Jim Carrey's December 2008 blockbuster film Yes Man. She also appears on interactive video screens throughout the USA and Japan in the theme park Magiquest as both Princess Amora and Princess Candice. These parks now have a cooperation throughout the USA through Great Wolf Lodges as well as their home base in Myrtle Beach, SC. She was also the Faerie Queen for Faerie Magazine for two years, gracing the cover in Spring 2007, and making appearances and performing at the Faerie Festivals throughout the USA. Night is also very well known for her charitable contributions towards animal welfare. Throughout the eleven years of the existence of Blackmore's Night, the duo has donated enough funds for the World Wide Fund for Nature to plant 6,000 fruit trees in Borneo for the orangutan habitat; they have donated to the Save the Bats in Berlin; Save the Badgers in England; local animal charities throughout the USA including an annual invitation only charity show in which all proceeds go directly to Save A Pet, Little Shelter, Best Friends and North Shore Animal League. They have also donated portions of proceeds of CD sales to the Red Cross to aid the flood victims in Eastern Europe; donated to CO2OL to plant trees in Panama to undo the pollution which their concerts may generate; donated to UNICEF. Other charities with whom they have cooperated include People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. After being engaged for nearly fifteen years, Night and Blackmore married on October, 2008. Her daughter, Autumn was born in May, 2010, and was the inspiration for Blackmore's Night's album, Autumn Sky, which was released on September, 2010. In February 2012 Night gave birth to her second child, a son called Rory. She made her first solo album Reflections, which was released on October, 2011. All songs were written by Night and consists of mostly soft rock ballads.

Source: Wikipedia

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