She withstood bomb threats when making her all-female Lilith Fair festival in the 90s – and this week stood up to Disney over Jimmy Kimmel. The alt-pop star explains why she’s still so fired up
It’s 11 years since Sarah McLachlan last released an album of original songs. The break had worried her. “What do I have to say at this point in my life?” she says. “I’m a 57-year-old white woman of privilege. Does anybody want to hear from me?”
Looking tanned and relaxed on an early morning video call from Vancouver Island, the Nova Scotia native admits she had “stayed busy”: she released a Christmas album (2016’s Wonderland) and worked as the principal fundraiser and founding board chair for her three namesake music schools, which provide lessons and education to at-risk youth. At the same time, she was a self-proclaimed dance mom raising two daughters; the second recently went off to college. But there was still “trepidation around being out of the game for so long”.
