Peter Gabriel life and biography

British musician Peter Gabriel is best known for his role as lead vocalist and flautist for the progressive rock group Genesis. He has continued to find success with his solo career. He is heavily involved in educating Western culture about the work of world musicians. He has also been involved in various humanitarian efforts in association with Amnesty International.

Gabriel left Genesis in 1975 and developed a deep interest in world music rhythms and textures, reflected in four eponymous albums (the last, released in 1982, was titled Security for its American release), while songs like “Games Without Frontiers” and “Biko” announced his political convictions.
This two-sided involvement in Third World affairs led to his cofounding of the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts, and Dance) Festival in 1982 and Real World Records in 1989.
His 1986 album, So, was a more personal statement; strengthened by the contributions of Laurie Anderson, Kate Bush, and Senegalese pop star Youssou N'Dour, it brought Gabriel critical acclaim and was a multimillion-seller. His next album, Passion: Music for “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1989), featured a number of African and Middle Eastern artists (several of whom released albums with Real World) and won a Grammy Award.
Gabriel's work also has been marked by an imaginative visual component. His performances with Genesis were noted for their supreme theatricality, and his music videos set new standards for the nascent medium; the video for “Sledgehammer” was voted best video of all time by Rolling Stone magazine in 1993, and two of Gabriel's other videos, based on his 1992 album Us, won Grammy Awards in 1992 and 1993.

In 1994 Gabriel released Xplora 1, one of the first multimedia CD-ROMs created by a mainstream artist, and six years later he composed OVO, a multimedia presentation for London's Millennium Dome.
In 2000 Gabriel showed that he remained ahead of the technological curve when he founded On Demand Distribution, an Internet service that became one of Europe's leading online music providers; he later sold the company for $38 million.
New material emerged in a slow trickle from the Real World studios as Gabriel contributed single songs to film sound tracks or appeared as a guest performer on other artists' albums. In 2002 he composed Long Walk Home, the score to the film Rabbit-Proof Fence, and he followed later that year with Up, his first full-length studio release in 10 years.
The former recalled his work on Passion, while the latter was a dark meditation on loss and longing. In 2008 Gabriel received the Ambassador of Conscience award from Amnesty International for the decades of support he had given that organization.
That year also saw the realization of Big Blue Ball, a world music project that had been 17 years in the making, and the resulting album featured performances by Gabriel, Sinead O'Connor, Joseph Arthur, and a host of international artists.
Gabriel once again distinguished himself for his sound track work with Pixar Animation's WALL-E (2008). Collaborating with composer Thomas Newman, Gabriel crafted “Down to Earth,” an upbeat track that won the Grammy Award for best song written for a motion picture in 2009.
He was honoured again later that year when the Royal Swedish Academy of Music conveyed upon him the Polar Music Prize for lifetime achievement, stating that Gabriel had “redefined the very concept” of popular music.

Gabriel has two daughters with his first wife Jill Moore: Anna-Marie (born 26 July 1974) and Melanie Gabriel (born 23 August 1976). Married on 17 March 1971, they divorced in 1987. Moore's father was Lord Moore of Wolvercote.

Anna-Marie is a filmmaker and Melanie is a musician. Anna-Marie filmed and directed the Growing Up On Tour: A Family Portrait and Still Growing Up: Live & Unwrapped DVDs. Melanie has been a backing vocalist in her father's band since 2002.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Gabriel lived with actress Rosanna Arquette but they never married.
Gabriel also has two sons with Meabh Flynn: Isaac Ralph (born 27 September 2001) and Luc (born 5 July 2008). Gabriel and Flynn have been married since 9 June 2002.

In November 2007 Gabriel's non-profit group WITNESS launched The Hub, a participatory media site for human rights.

In September 2008 Gabriel was named as the recipient of Amnesty International’s 2008 Ambassador of Conscience Award. In the same month, he received Quadriga United We Care award of Werkstatt Deutschland along with Boris Tadić, Eckart Höfling and Wikipedia. The award was presented to him by Queen Silvia of Sweden.

Gabriel lent his support to the campaign to release Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of committing adultery.

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