Amy Lee

Amy Lynn Lee (born December 13, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She is the co-founder, lead vocalist, lead songwriter and keyboardist of the rock band Evanescence. Alongside her contributions with the band, Lee has also participated in other musical projects, including Nightmare Revisited and Muppets: The Green Album, composed the soundtrack to the films War Story (2014) and Indigo Grey: The Passage (2015) with cellist Dave Eggar, and the song "Speak to Me" for the film Voice from the Stone (2017). She has also collaborated with other artists such as Korn, Seether, Bring Me the Horizon, and Lindsey Stirling. A classically trained pianist, Lee possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Lee received the Songwriter Icon Award from the National Music Publishers Association in 2008. In 2012, she won Best Vocalist at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards and was also named Rock Goddess of the Year at the Loudwire Music Awards. She was awarded Best Film Score by the Moondance International Film Festival for Indigo Grey: The Passage in 2015. In 2017, she received the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Song in Independent Film for "Speak to Me". Lee is the American chairperson for the international epilepsy awareness foundation Out of the Shadows. Early life and education Amy Lee was born on December 13, 1981 in Riverside, California, to parents John Lee, who worked as a disc jockey and voice-over artist, and Sara Cargill. The oldest of five siblings, she has two living sisters. Lee had a younger sister who died at age three from an unidentified illness when Lee was six years old, and a younger brother who died in 2018 at age 24 after struggling with severe epilepsy for most of his life. Lee said that when her little sister died, her "whole perception of life changed", and it influenced her rumination on death. She wrote the songs "Hello" from Fallen and "Like You" from The Open Door for her late sister. After her sister's death, Lee became an only child and did not allow herself "a lot of outward grief" to protect her parents's emotions. She spent time by herself creating, which became a self-soothing medium. Lee discovered a passion for the piano in early childhood, wanting to play the instrument at age six after hearing her mother play. Classical music was her first musical influence as a child, inspiring her to become a musician and composer.