67 Facts About Regina Spektor

Regina Spektor's following two albums, Far and What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, each debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200.

Regina Spektor was inducted into the Bronx Walk of Fame on May 18,2019, by Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr.

Regina Spektor was born on February 18,1980 in Moscow, Soviet Union, to a musical Russian-Jewish family.

Regina Spektor's father, Ilya Spektor, was a photographer and amateur violinist.

Regina Spektor's mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Soviet college of music and taught at public elementary schools in Mount Vernon, New York, now retired.

Regina Spektor grew up listening to classical music and Russian bards like Vladimir Vysotsky and Bulat Okudzhava.

The family left the Soviet Union for the Bronx in 1989, when Regina Spektor was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate.

Since the family had been unable to bring their piano from Moscow, Regina Spektor practiced on tabletops and other hard surfaces until she found a piano to play in the basement of her synagogue.

In New York City, Regina Spektor studied classical piano with Sonia Vargas, a professor at the Manhattan School of Music, until she was 17; Regina Spektor's father had met Vargas through Vargas' husband, violinist Samuel Marder.

Regina Spektor attended high school for two years at the Frisch School, a yeshiva in Paramus, New Jersey, but transferred to a public school, Fair Lawn High School, in Fair Lawn, New Jersey, where she finished the last two years of her high school education.

Regina Spektor was originally interested in classical music only, but she later grew interested in hip hop, rock, and punk as well.

Regina Spektor wrote her first a cappella songs around the age of 16 and her first songs for voice and piano when she was 17.

Regina Spektor completed the four-year studio composition program of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College within three years, graduating with honors in 2001.

Regina Spektor gradually achieved recognition through performances in the anti-folk scene in downtown New York City, most prominently at the East Village's SideWalk Cafe.

Regina Spektor performed at local colleges with other musicians, including the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.

Regina Spektor sold self-published CDs at her performances during this period: 11:11 and Songs.

In 2004, Regina Spektor signed a contract with Warner Brothers' record label Sire Records to publish and distribute her third album Soviet Kitsch, originally self-released in 2003.

In June 2005, Regina Spektor was the opening act for the English piano rock band Keane on their North American tour, during which she performed at Radio City Music Hall on June 7,2005.

Regina Spektor went on to release the album Begin to Hope on June 13,2006.

Regina Spektor received increased attention when her video for "Fidelity" was viewed over 200,000 times in two days on YouTube.

Regina Spektor's 2006 headlining tour in support of the Begin to Hope album included back-to-back hometown shows at Town Hall Theater in New York City on September 27 and September 28,2006.

Regina Spektor reached No 33 on Blender magazine's top 100 of 2006 and was listed as one of the "Hottest Women of Rock".

In 2007, Regina Spektor began performing at several major music festivals including Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Bonnaroo Music Festival, Lollapalooza, Virgin Festival, and Austin City Limits Music Festival.

Regina Spektor performed acoustic at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit at Shoreline Amphitheatre on October 27,2007.

On November 14,2007, at her concert at Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Regina Spektor collapsed during the sound check and was taken to a local emergency room.

Regina Spektor wrote the song "The Call" for the 2008 film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which appeared prominently in the film's finale sequence.

Regina Spektor then appeared as a guest vocalist on "You Don't Know Me", a single from Ben Folds' 2008 album, Way to Normal.

Regina Spektor then headlined at Serpentine Sessions, a series of concerts at London's Hyde Park on June 29,2009.

Regina Spektor invited Brooklyn-based rock band Jupiter One to open concerts on her 2009 North American tour.

Regina Spektor made her Saturday Night Live debut on October 10,2009, performing "Eet" and "The Calculation" off of Far.

In May 2010, Regina Spektor performed for Barack and Michelle Obama along with hundreds of other guests at the White House reception in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month.

Promotional appearances for the record included Regina Spektor appearing on the June 7,2012 episode of The Colbert Report where she performed "Small Town Moon" as well as "Ballad of a Politician" as online bonus content.

Regina Spektor wrote and recorded the main title theme song, "You've Got Time", for the Netflix original series Orange Is the New Black, which premiered in July 2013.

Regina Spektor announced her seventh album, Remember Us to Life on July 21,2016, through her email newsletter.

Regina Spektor performed George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", released August 5,2016, for the film Kubo and the Two Strings.

In 2016, Regina Spektor was one of the artists featured on The Hamilton Mixtape; she sings a remix of "Dear Theodosia" with Ben Folds.

In 2017, Regina Spektor was featured as a guest singer on the title track to Gypsy-punk band Gogol Bordello's studio album Seekers and Finders.

Regina Spektor was featured as a guest vocalist on Odesza's song "Just A Memory" from their album A Moment Apart.

On November 8,2018, Regina Spektor released a new song entitled "Birdsong", written specially for an episode of the Amazon Prime series The Romanoffs.

On July 26,2019, Regina Spektor released an acoustic version of her own song "You've Got Time", coinciding with the release of the seventh and final season of Orange Is the New Black.

In late 2019, Regina Spektor released a new song, "Walking Away", for Amazon Prime Original Series Modern Love.

On February 22,2022, Regina Spektor announced her eighth studio album Home, Before and After with a June 24 release date, alongside the release of the album's lead single "Becoming All Alone".

Regina Spektor has said that she has created a great number of songs but rarely writes any of them down.

Regina Spektor's songs are not usually autobiographical but are based on scenarios and characters drawn from her imagination.

Regina Spektor's songs show influences from folk, punk, rock, Jewish, Russian, hip hop, jazz, and classical music.

Regina Spektor performs using a broad vocal range, with a falsetto extension, but without any apparent break.

Regina Spektor explores a variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques, such as verses composed entirely of buzzing noises made with the lips and beatbox-style flourishes in the middle of ballads, and makes use of such unusual musical techniques as using a drum stick to tap rhythms on the body of a chair.

Regina Spektor uses a strong New York accent on some words, which she has said is due to her love of New York and its culture.

Regina Spektor plays with pronunciations, which she told NPR was a remnant of her early years when she listened to pop in English without understanding the lyrics.

Regina Spektor's lyrics are equally eclectic, often taking the form of abstract narratives or first-person character studies, similar to short stories or vignettes put to song.

Regina Spektor's use of satire is evident in "Wasteside", which refers to The Twelve Chairs, the classic satirical novel by the Soviet authors Ilf and Petrov, and describes the town in which people are born, get their hair cut, and then are sent to the cemetery.

Regina Spektor says the records that most impact her are those of "bands whose music is really involved".

Regina Spektor cites the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Nirvana, Madonna, Eminem, Kate Bush, Rufus Wainwright, David Bowie, the Ramones, Patti Smith, Billie Holiday, Radiohead, Tom Waits, and Frederic Chopin as prime influences.

Since 2005, Regina Spektor's music has been used in various television programs and commercials.

Regina Spektor has frequently paid tribute to her Jewish identity and talked about the antisemitism she experienced.

Regina Spektor was vegetarian for a time until she toured with the Strokes, who frequently dined on steak.

Regina Spektor considers herself politically liberal and admires former President of the United States Barack Obama.

Regina Spektor said that Obama's initial opposition to same-sex marriage was "as embarrassing as white-only drinking fountains".

Regina Spektor deplored the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in 2016.

Regina Spektor is a supporter of Israel and performed at a ceremony at the National Mall celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2008.

Regina Spektor has denounced what she views as double standards about Israel in the media.

In 2007, Regina Spektor covered John Lennon's "Real Love" for Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.

On January 22,2009, Regina Spektor performed at the third annual Roe on the Rocks gig at the Bowery Ballroom to raise money for Planned Parenthood New York City.

Also, continuing with her support for Tibet, Regina Spektor played for Tibet House's annual concert at Carnegie Hall on February 26,2010.

Less than one month later, on March 23,2010, Regina Spektor gave a concert at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in New York City to raise funds for the work of Medecins Sans Frontieres in Haiti.

In February 2012, Regina Spektor did a benefit concert at Rose Hall for HIAS, an organization that helped a young Regina Spektor and her family emigrate from the Soviet Union.

Regina Spektor has taken part in several memorial and benefit concerts for the family of Dan Cho, her former cellist who died while on tour with her in 2010.