Donna DE Lory
Donna De Lory is a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist whose radiant voice and expansive musical vision encompass pop, world music, electronica and devotional mantras. In the pop realm, she’s perhaps best known for her work with Madonna as a backup singer and dancer, seen in the documentary film Truth or Dare and on Madonna’s Who’s That Girl, Blonde Ambition, Girlie Show, Drowned World, Reinvention and Confession tours. But De Lory’s own music has topped the Billboard Dance Chart several times, and her voice has been heard on landmark albums by artists such as Bette Midler, Leonard Cohen, Belinda Carlisle, Carly Simon and Selena. She has also sung on soundtracks for feature films like A League of Their Own, Smallfoot and The Switch.
At the same time, De Lory is one of the world’s foremost singers of devotional mantras and songs of spiritual inspiration. Throughout the 2000s, she released a string of evocative, eclectic, beautifully-produced albums that have captured the hearts of listeners in mindfulness, wellness meditation and yoga communities and beyond. Her music is heard by over 100,000 Spotify listeners a month and has garnered more than 10 million streams across several digital platforms. Her newest album, Sing to the Light has already garnered widespread social media acclaim, moving one to exclaim, “the more I listen, the more beautiful your music becomes!”
Born to a life of music, De Lory is the daughter of the late, Grammy-winning pianist and “Wichita Lineman” producer, Al De Lory—a valued member of Phil Spector’s legendary Wrecking Crew session ensemble. Her grandfather played in the studio orchestra at Warner Bros. for films including Casablanca and Gone With The Wind. The singer has paid homage to her late father and mother on albums such as The Unchanging and Here in Heaven, drawing inspiration from her dad’s Latin jazz roots and a dazzling palette of global grooves and electronic atmospheres.
De Lory made her debut as a session singer at the age of eight. During her teen years, she spent time honing her craft on Nashville’s Music Row before returning to her native L.A. to become a first-call session singer. She has lent her voice to albums such as Jewel’s Spirit, Leonard Cohen’s Popular Problems, Belinda Carlisle’s Heaven on Earth and Selena’s Dreaming of You, which was the first predominantly Spanish language album to hit the number one spot on the Billboard 200 in 1995.
De Lory’s vocal performance on a song demo for what would become Madonna’s 1986 hit “Open Your Heart,” caught the ear of the pop icon, who promptly engaged De Lory as a singer and dancer for numerous historic world tours as well as albums such as Like a Prayer, Erotica, Ray of Light, Bedtime Stories and Evita.
In 1993, De Lory made her debut as a solo artist with a self-titled album on MCA/Universal Records, hitting #1 in Japan with the single, “Praying for Love,” and landing in the US top 10 dance chart with “Just a Dream.”
But the singer’s adventurous spirit was pulling her in other directions—deep into world music and the spiritual life. So she struck out on her own as an independent artist with 2000’s Bliss, co-produced by Game of Thrones cellist Cameron Stone. The album’s single, “On and On,’ remixed by Junior Vasquez, became a Billboard Top 10 Dance hit in 2000. And in 2003, De Lory collaborated with electronic music producer Mac Quayle on the 9/11 tribute track “The Hurting.”
Other aspects of Bliss pointed toward the more spiritual direction De Lory would take on now-classic records like The Lover and the Beloved, Sky is Open, Sanctuary and Gone Beyond, which have become the soundtrack for the global yoga/mindfulness movement. By turns ethereal, danceable and heartfelt, her impeccably-produced recordings are complemented by transcendently beautiful music videos for tracks like “Piano Man,” “Listen” and “Heaven-Atom Smith Remix,” which have amassed over one million views on YouTube.
Prolific, innovative and always inspiring, Donna De Lory’s most recent album is Sing to the Light, a collaboration with guitarist James Harrah, a longtime friend and musical associate. The two first met in the 1980s, as part of the Laurel Canyon music scene and later traveled the world together on Madonna’s Who’s That Girl tour. As they worked on Sing to the Light, Donna underwent treatment—successful in its outcome—for a life-threatening illness. The music became part of her healing journey. The result is an album of profound beauty and serenity. Gorgeously layered vocals are interwoven with lilting guitar melodicism and atmospheric keyboards, taking the listener on a gentle voyage into light, wellness, wholeness and harmony.