Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer. She was born in Santa Monica, California, but, at the age of one moved with her mother, a computer systems analyst, and her stepfather, a Puerto Rican writer, to New Y

Suzanne Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American songwriter and singer. She was born in Santa Monica, California, but, at the age of one moved with her mother, a computer systems analyst, and her stepfather, a Puerto Rican writer, to New York City, where she grew up in a socially problematic area (Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side). At the age of nine she began to write poems; she wrote her first song at 14. Later she attended the New York City High School of the Performing Arts (the school seen in the film musical Fame), where she studied modern dance.

Music, however, was her first love. While majoring in English literature at Columbia University's Barnard College, she performed in small venues in Greenwich Village, where she was a regular contributor to the Monday night songwriters group at the Cornelia Street Cafe. In 1984 she received a major label record contract.