Bryan Adams

Adams released his first album at 20, but it was 1983's Cuts Like a Knife that broke him in North America, with "Straight from the Heart" giving him his first U.S. top-ten hit. A year later, Reckless made him a global fixture - the first album by a Canadian to go diamond at home, spinning off "Summer of '69", "Run to You", and the number one hit "Heaven". Into the Fire followed in 1987, then came 1991's Waking Up the Neighbours, a worldwide chart-topper that sold 16 million copies and launched "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You", which hit number one in at least 19 countries. By 1993 he'd shifted toward ballads - "Please Forgive Me", "All for Love", "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" - and racked up five Golden Globe nominations and three Oscar nods for film work. He's sold somewhere between 75 million and 100 million records, won 20 Junos and a Grammy, and in 2010 received the Governor General's Award for three decades of contributions to the arts.