[[quoteright:346:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Suzanne_Vega_364.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:346:She is watching you.]]

->''When they ask me, "What are you looking at?"\\
I always tell them, "Nothing much, not much"\\
I think they know that I'm looking at them\\
I think they think I must be out of touch\\\
But I'm only in the outskirts, and in the fringes\\
On the edge and off the avenue\\
And if you want me, you can find me\\
Left of center, wondering about you''
-->-[[Film/PrettyInPink "Left of Center"]]

Suzanne Nadine Vega (born July 11, 1959) is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. She is best known by the mainstream for the radio hits "Luka" and "Tom's Diner", but her entire career is something to appreciate.

Her musical style, while it has [[NewSoundAlbum evolved]] throughout her career, is an instantly identifiable cocktail of multi-instrumental {{folk|music}} and soft, ethereal rock, with heavy reliance on melodic guitar and honest, unaffected vocals. Her songs cover a wild range of topics, but most are united by the theme of sensitive, detailed observation of both the human and natural worlds and often contain much {{symbolism}} and introspection.

"Tom's Diner" was used as the reference track in an early trial of the {{Platform/MP3}} compression system, earning her the distinction of being the Mother of the [=MP3=]. It was chosen because her a capella vocal with relatively little reverberation was used as the model for Karlheinz Brandenburg's compression algorithm. Brandenburg heard "Tom's Diner" on a radio playing the song. He was excited and at first convinced it would be “nearly impossible to compress this warm a capella voice.”

In 1990, two British music producers remixed "Tom's Diner" and released it limitedly to clubs under the name "DNA" without permission from Vega, [=PolyGram=], [[Creator/AAndMRecords A&M Records]], or the music publisher. A&M quickly discovered the remix...but didn't sue them. Instead, they bought and released it fully, and it became a larger hit than it originally had been.

Another notable song is "The Queen And The Soldier" (1985), the characters of which have an active fandom to this day.

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'''Discography:'''
* ''Suzanne Vega'' (1985)
* ''Solitude Standing'' (1987)
* ''Days of Open Hand'' (1990)
* ''99.9F°'' (1992)
* ''Nine Objects of Desire'' (1996)
* ''Songs in Red and Gray'' (2001)
* ''Beauty and Crime'' (2007)
* ''Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles'' (2014)
* ''Lover, Beloved: Songs From An Evening With Carson [=McCullers=]'' (2016)
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!!Today I am a small blue trope:
* ACappella: "Tom's Diner" is an A cappella song written in 1981 about impressions and feelings of a woman in a city during one morning. She did later also an instrumental version of the song.
* AnswerSong: "(I'll Never Be) Your Maggie May", in answer to Rod Stewart's "Maggie May".
* AndThatLittleGirlWasMe: In an interview shortly after the release of "Luka", Vega stated that she got the name from a boy she had often seen playing outside her building, who never quite seemed to fit in with the other kids (though she added that she didn't think the real Luka had been abused, merely that he seemed "different"). Whether or not that part was true, however, she would reveal decades later that the actual inspiration for the child in the song was ''herself'', as she had suffered abuse at the hands of her stepfather.
-->''I chose Luka as a name and as a character because I didn't want people to know that it was me.''
* AntiLoveSong: "Frank & Ava"
-->And so, now we know\\
That it's not enough to be in love
* BigApplesauce:
** There are many references to New York City in ''Beauty & Crime,'' including its track "New York Is A Woman."
** More subtly is "Tom's Diner." The song is based on RealLife Tom's Restaurant in Manhattan and the lyrics make reference to listening to "the bells of the Cathedral." This is a reference to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, which is one block over and can be seen from just outside the restaurant looking east across W112th St.
* CutHimselfShaving: "Luka" is a song very obviously about child abuse, runs with the "walked into the door again" approach in amidst claims of being clumsy and recommendations not to ask.
* DarkerAndEdgier: The whole of ''99.9F°'' is this, or rather it's Darker and Edgier-''sounding'', her earlier material tending to be [[LyricalDissonance lyrically dark but musically very pretty]].
* DarknessEqualsDeath: Discussed in "Night Vision."
-->By day give thanks\\
By night beware\\
Half the world in sweetness\\
The other in fear
* DistractedByTheSexy: "Gypsy", where the man she's addressing is "Distracted by the women/With the dimples and the curls".
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: "Undertow" opens with the line "I believe right now if I could, I would swallow you whole." Vega confirmed in an 80s interview that yes, she is doing that to him.
* DownerEnding: "The Queen and the Soldier" where the queen orders the soldier shot in the back after he sees her in a moment of weakness.
* DrivenToSuicide: "Straight Lines" [[ImpliedTrope could very well be about this]], while "In Liverpool" and "50/50 Chance" are pretty unambiguously about this.
* GreenEyedMonster: Jealousy is a big part of what drives "Frank & Ava" apart.
-->He says, "It isn't me you're thinking of."
* HurricaneOfPuns: "No Cheap Thrill". A hurricane of poker puns, most of which also serve as [[DoubleEntendre Double Entendres]], to be precise.
* ImportantHaircut: "Straight Lines" is about this. [[DrivenToSuicide Unless it isn't.]]
* LoveIsLikeReligion: The similarly themed "Bound" and "Penitent" both play with the idea of the singer as the disciple of her lover, asking them to take her back like a prodigal son and wondering to what extent she would obey them.
-->You appear without a face\\
Disappear but leave your trace\\
I feel your unseen frown
* LyricalDissonance:
** "Luka" is a peppy little song... about an abused child.
** There's also "Tombstone", an upbeat song about death.
** Going the other way, "Small Blue Thing" sounds, well, [[ColourCodedEmotions blue]], despite its lyrics being ambiguous at least but interprably joyful.
* {{Motif}}: Playing cards in ''99.9F°''.
* TheMusical: ''Lover, Beloved'' is a musical version of her own play ''Carson [=McCullers=] Talks About Love''.
* MundaneMadeAwesome: Many of her songs take simple observations of the world around her and elevate them to something incredibly beautiful.
** "Tom's Diner," about going to the location for coffee, reading the newspaper and observing the other customers.
** "Headshots" is all about an advertisement flyer she sees on a wall.
* NonAppearingTitle:
** "Tom's Diner". The name of the diner the singer is in is never mentioned in the lyrics.
** "Penitent"
** "Woman on the Tier" (though the subtitle, "I'll See You Through", does appear)
** "Gypsy".
* RapeAsDrama: "Bad Wisdom" seems from the lyrics to be about a child who's been sexually abused.
* RevengeBallad: In her own typical twist. "In the Eye", where the singer warns someone about the revenge she is capable of:
-->If you were to kill me now, right here\\
I would still look you in the eye\\
And I would burn myself into your memory\\
As long as you were still alive
* SelfTitledAlbum: Her first.
* SettingAsACharacter: "New York Is a Woman."
-->And she's ever girl you've seen in every movie\\
Every dame you've ever known on late night TV\\
And her steam and steel\\
Is the passion you feel, endlessly ...\\
New York is a woman; she'll make you cry\\
And to her you're just another guy
* ShoutOut: Many of her songs are based on real events, people, or stories:
** "Calypso" is about the Greek goddess Calypso, as seen in the Odyssey.
** "Frank and Ava" describes the relationship between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner
** "Rock in My Pocket" is about [[DavidVsGoliath David and Goliath]].
** "Marlene on the Wall" references a poster of real life actress Creator/MarleneDietrich that was on Vega's wall in her room.
** "Angel's Doorway" is about a cop on duty at Ground Zero after 9/11 and how he leaves his clothes at the door when he comes home, because they smell of "the dust and the dirt and the destruction."
* TheWatcher: She discusses being this in several of her songs, including "Big Space" and "Left of Center."
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