[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sarah_mclachlan_7594.jpg]]

->''"Hi, I'm Sarah [=McLachlan=]. Will [[WaxingLyrical YOU be an angel]] for a helpless animal?"''

Sarah Ann [=McLachlan=] [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever OC OBC]] (born January 28, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She specializes in [[TearJerker emotional]] music that is a mixture of {{baroque pop}}, folk rock, and adult contemporary, and is known for her soothing mezzo-soprano voice. Music/StevieNicks has credited her among female artists who embody the spirit of "elegant old rock and roll"[[note]]perhaps thinking of artists like Rosie Mendez-Hamlin in 1961's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu2dAQ3xb8s Angel Baby]]"[[/note]].

In addition to her solo career, she founded the Lilith Fair tour, which showcased female musicians in the late 1990s and in 2010. It was originally created in backlash of radio stations not wanting to plays songs by female artists back-to-back.

[=McLachlan=] has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. Her fourth album, ''Surfacing'', sold 16 million copies alone, and is most known for containing her SignatureSong "Angel" (inspired by ''Magazine/RollingStone'' articles she read about musicians overdosing on heroin, namely Jonathan Melvoin[[note]]at the time a touring keyboardist for Music/TheSmashingPumpkins[[/note]]), which later became iconic for its {{memetic|Mutation}} use in TearJerker situations, most notably [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gspElv1yvc a commercial for the ASPCA]].

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!!Discography:
* ''[[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Touch]]'' (1988)
* ''Solace'' (1991)
* ''Fumbling Towards Ecstasy'' (1993)
* ''Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff'' (1996, mostly covers and remixes)
* ''Surfacing'' (1997)
* ''Mirrorball'' (1999)
* ''Afterglow'' (2003)
* ''[[ChristmasSongs Wintersong]]'' (2006)
* ''Laws of Illusion'' (2010)
* ''Shine On'' (2014)
* ''Wonderland'' (2016)
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!!"In the tropes of the angel":
* AnimalLover: Famously, "Angel" is used in a TearJerker {{Infomercial}} for the [=ASPCA=], in which Sarah shows that animal cruelty is bad and abused animals need someone to care for them.
* AudienceParticipationSong: "Blackbird", "Ice Cream", really any one of them.
* AwardBaitSong:
** "When She Loved Me" in ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'', written by Music/RandyNewman.
** "I Will Remember You" in ''The Brothers [=McMullen=]''.
* BreakupSong: "U Want Me 2". However it would perhaps be more correct to discuss the songs that ''could not'' be classified as {{Breakup Song}}s.
* BrokenBird
* ChristmasSongs: She has recorded two albums of them.
* CoverVersion: She's covered "Dear God" by Music/{{XTC}}, "Song for a Winter Night" by Gordon Lightfoot, [[Music/BlueJoniMitchellAlbum Blue]] and "River" by Music/JoniMitchell, "Gloomy Sunday" by Rezső Seress, "Blackbird" by Music/TheBeatles (for the soundtrack of ''Film/IAmSam''), "Homeless" by Music/PaulSimon, "Unchained Melody" by The Righteous Brothers, and "The Rainbow Connection". Pretty much all of ''[[CoverAlbum Wintersong]]'' consists of covers. She also covered the chorus of Music/HarryChapin's "Cat's in the Cradle" for DMC's song "Just Like Me".
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Touch'', and to a lesser degree, ''Solace''.
* GodIsLoveSongs: "The Prayer of St Francis".
** Inverted with her cover of Music/{{XTC}}'s [[GodIsEvil "Dear God"]]
* GriefSong: You'd be better off listing the ones that aren't.
** "Push" isn't, but it seems unlikely that Sarah will play it after her marriage fell apart.
* HiddenTrack[=/=]RearrangeTheSong: ''Fumbling Towards Ecstasy'' has a second version of "Possession", this one an acoustic piano ballad, as a hidden track at the end.
* {{Instrumentals}}: "Last Dance" on ''Surfacing''.
* IsntItIronic: "Angel" is about heroin abuse, specifically the fatal overdose of Music/TheSmashingPumpkins' touring keyboardist, Jonathan Melvoin; but is used in a PSA narrated by [=McLachlan=] herself for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
* LyricalDissonance:
** "Possession", one of her most upbeat, rockingest songs, ''is about a stalker''.
** "Angel" is about the overdose of [[Music/TheSmashingPumpkins Jonathan Melvoin]].
** "Building a Mystery", when really you listen to the lyrics, notably contrasts with the warm, laid-back feel of the song. At least one live performance she's done of it turns it into a harder, grunge-style song, putting particular emphasis on the "screaming loud" and "fucked up" lines.
** Most of her songs are this trope. "Vox", "Fallen", etc.
* MsFanservice: She appeared in two of the ''Solace''-era videos naked, although it was obviously meant for artistic purposes rather than to look sexy.
* NonAppearingTitle: Excluding covers, "Awakenings," "Ben's Song," "Dirty Little Secret," "Elsewhere," "Fumbling Towards Ecstasy," "Last Dance," "Out of the Shadows," "Possession," "Touch," "Sad Clown," "Song for My Father," "Uphill Battle," "Vox," and "Wintersong" all fall under this trope. Most of these songs come from her first album, although some of these, most notably "Awakenings," are much more recent. To an extent, "Circle," "Illusions of Bliss," and "The Path of Thorns" could also fall under this trope.
* ObsessionSong[=/=]StalkerWithACrush: "Possession." An obsessed fan sued [=McLachlan=], claiming that she had used the love letters he wrote to her in the song's lyrics. He committed suicide before the suit ever went to trial and [=McLachlan=] has remained silent on the matter to this day.
* PrecisionFStrike: "A beautiful fucked up man" in "Building A Mystery".
* PropertyOfLove: "Sweet Surrender" certainly sounds like this. The singer has decisively left some unpleasant past behind ("the life I've left behind me is a cold room"), and is taken in by lover who will "strip away the ugliness that surrounds me." The singer is clearly submitting to her lover: "I only hope that I won't disappoint you/When I'm down here on my knees."
* ProtestSong: "World On Fire". The video borders on {{Anvilicious}} as it lists every expense that went into the video and what was bought with the money instead.
* RealLifeWritesThePlot: Not only is "Possession" about a stalker, the lyrics were supposedly inspired by ''actual stalking letters'' that [=McLachlan=] received from her very own stalker. Who then tried to sue her for plagiarism.
* RecordProducer: All her albums since ''Solace'' have been produced by Pierre Marchand; the others, as a result, suffer from EarlyInstallmentWeirdness.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines:
** She wrote "Angel" after seeing several famous musicians die of heroin overdoses.
** "World On Fire" was inspired by the 9/11 attacks.
* SelfDeprecation: She appeared in a UsefulNotes/SuperBowl commercial that, for a small scene, parodied her ads supporting animal adoption.
* StarSpangledSpandex: The music video for "Building a Mystery" has a dress like this.
* UrbanFantasy: The video for "Building A Mystery" was this; interspersed with scenes of Sarah singing the song, a man wanders the world, collecting light from various sources, and sews the lights into a piece of clothing. When the man heads out again, Sarah stops singing, walks into the room, and tries it on, revealing a dress which looks like the night sky. Admittedly, it doesn't make much more sense ''in'' context.
* XtremeKoolLetterz: "U Want Me 2".
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