Michelle Branch Biography

Michelle Jaquet DeSevren Branch was born in Phoenix, Arizona on July 2nd 1983. Michelle was born seven weeks early weighing only 3lbs 11oz, and says she was eager to get into the world. Her whole life she has loved music, listening to The Beatles since she was in the womb. At the time of her birth, her family were living in Flagstaff, Arizona but as it was 4th of July weekend, there were no places at the hospital and her mum, Peggy had to be flown to Phoenix with her dad, David following in the car. When Michelle was just three years old she recorded herself singing Beatles covers on her parents karaoke machine and sent them off to her grandma. She remembers her version of “Ticket To Ride” clearly, “She’s got a chicken to ride, but she don’t care!”. At eight years old she took up singing lessons, but had to give them up when at eleven years old along with her parents, her older brother David (b. March 11th 1979) and younger sister, Nicole (b. 1987) she moved to Sedona, Arizona. From then on Michelle took up singing lessons with Gina Bettum, and a year after picking up the guitar by herself, at age 15 she started lessons with Ms. Bettums husband, Gary, but quickly stopped having lessons with him after she found herself constantly being technical instead of going with the flow. Also at age 15, Michelle left school and was home tutored by her mum, with a clear warning that if her grades dropped, she must return to school but luckily that never happened and she was able to focus on her music more.

 

Her first break into the music industry happened when she was at home, looking after her younger sister Nicole. A family friend called her up and told her that a music manager named Jeff Rabhan was taking a time share tour at her company and to get down to her office with a demo tape. Unable to leave Nicole alone and with no drivers licence or parents in the house, Michelle stole her neighbours golf cart and made her way down to the resort with Nicole. Michelle says that when they got there, he wasn’t interested but after forcing her tape on him, he listened to it on his way home in the car. A few months later, Michelle unexpectedly received a phone call from him, asking to sign her. He is still her manager to this day.

After signing with Jeff Rabhan’s company, Michelle went into the studio to record an indy album named Broken Bracelet and planned to give it away at local shows. Then in Summer 2000, Michelle received another phone call – this time from Hanson’s reps, asking Michelle to play for them on some of their upcoming shows. Michelle happily accepted, packed her bags and flew to California where she would be spotted by a rep at Maverick Records and offered a record deal. In December 2000, Michelle eventually signed with Madonna’s label and was halfway through finishing her first major album, later titled “The Spirit Room”.

The summer hit of 2001 turned out to be “Everywhere”, the first single off Michelle’s album. It shot into the #12 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 and made Michelle an established upcomer, with everyone wanting to work with her including Lifehouse, Jude, The Calling, Sheryl Crow and most recently The Dixie Chicks bringing her on tour with them. Then in January 2002, “All You Wanted” – Michelle’s favourite off the album – stormed in at #6 and reached #1 on the TRL top 10. As summer 2002 came around, not even a year after her debut, and just a few weeks after the release of her third and final single off TSR, “Goodbye To You” (which reached #21), Carlos Santana requested Michelle’s services for his comeback album, Shaman. The song was “Game Of Love” and hit the top 5, gaining Michelle worldwide recognition. Even Michelle admits that the duet made her, especially after being nominated for “Best New Artist” and winning “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals” at the Grammy Awards in February 2003.

In April 2003, Michelle finished recording her album, named Hotel Paper, after years of writing. The first single to be taken off HP was “Are You Happy Now?”, which charted. Since then, she has gone on to perform at the Superbowl, Latin VMAs, headlining the Pepsi Smash, Humanitarian of the Year, MMVAs and was the first person to perform on top of the Madison Square Garden marquee.