Candice Night is an American vocalist/lyricist, multi-instrumentalist for the traditional folk rock project Blackmore's Night since its origins in 1997, and wife of British guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Her first solo album, Reflections, was released in 2011.
Career
Born in Hauppauge, Long Island, New York, as Candice Lauren Isralow, she took piano lessons for a couple of years. She began modeling as "Candice Loren" at 12 years of age. She appeared in everything from commercials to print ads, and promoted products at trade shows until her 20s. Night also had her own radio show on a rock music radio station on Long Island, and attended New York Institute of Technology where she studied communications. She is Jewish. She was once a Rainbow fan, so she met Ritchie Blackmore to ask him for an autograph in 1989. They talked about ghosts, music, travel, history, and philosophy, gradually became friends, and then lived together from 1991. She provided backing vocals on the instrumental track "Difficult to Cure" in 1993's European tour of Deep Purple. She also provided singing backing vocals on "Ariel", "Black Masquerade", "Wolf to the Moon" and "Hall of the Mountain King" for Stranger in Us All, the CD by Rainbow, as well as writing lyrics for the four songs on the aforementioned album. Despite her being inexperienced as a professional lead singer, Blackmore encouraged her to become his musical partner. She then wrote lyrics for most of the songs on the first Blackmore's Night album, Shadow of the Moon where she supplied lead vocals. Those songs were written with her voice in his mind. Night has also composed some full songs, including "Now and Then" on Under a Violet Moon and "3 Black Crows" and "Ivory Tower" on Ghost of a Rose. She continues to write all the lyrics for the Blackmore's Night songs and plays nine renaissance and medieval instruments. Since then, she has been awarded gold albums and other awards for the music of Blackmore's Night, and has charted internationally with the group's music. Their 2008 release, Secret Voyage, entered at on the new-age Billboard Charts and stayed there for four weeks, and then held on in the top 10 for an additional 14 weeks. She continues to be involved in music, performing both on CDs and in concert, writing lyrics, singing, and playing medieval instruments: shawm, cornamuse, rauschpfeife, pennywhistle, and chanters. In 2006 Night sang on Helloween's "Light the Universe" song from their album, and she also appeared In Helloween's music video for that track. She played the part of Oria in the rock opera Story of Aina, with Sass Jordan and Glenn Hughes. She sang three songs on the Beto Vázquez album Infinity with Tarja Turunen from Nightwish and Sabine Edelsbacher from Edenbridge. The Blackmore's Night song "Old Mill Inn" was heard in Jim Carrey's December 2008 film Yes Man. She also appears on interactive video screens throughout the US and Japan in the theme park MagiQuest as both Princess Amora and Princess Candice. These parks now have a cooperation throughout the USA. She was also the Faerie Queen for Faerie Magazine for two years, appearing on the cover in spring 2007, and making appearances and performing at the Faerie Festivals throughout the USA. Night is also very well known for her charitable contributions towards animal welfare. Throughout the eleven years of the existence of Blackmore's Night, the duo has donated enough funds for the World Wide Fund for Nature to plant 6,000 fruit trees in Borneo for the orangutan habitat; they have donated to the Save the Bats in Berlin; Save the Badgers in England; local animal charities throughout the USA including an annual charity show in which proceeds go to Save A Pet, Little Shelter, Best Friends and North Shore Animal League. They have also donated portions of proceeds of CD sales to the Red Cross to aid the flood victims in Eastern Europe; donated to CO2OL to plant trees in Panama to undo the pollution which their concerts may generate; donated to UNICEF. Other charities with whom they have cooperated include People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. After being engaged for nearly fifteen years, Night and Blackmore married in October 2008. Their daughter, Autumn, was born on May 27, 2010, and was the inspiration for Blackmore's Night's album, Autumn Sky, which was released in September 2010. On February 7, 2012, Night gave birth to their second child, a son named Rory Dartanyan. She made her first solo album Reflections, which was released in October 2011. All songs were written by Night and consist of mostly soft rock ballads. Her latest solo release is "Starlight, Starbright". Inspired by the birth of her children, this collection of songs are covers of classic favorites as well as new composition meant to bring the listener to the land of dreams. In September 2018, Avantasia's mastermind Tobias Sammet announced that she joined the cast for the eighth studio album of the supergroup. She provided co-lead vocals for the track "Moonglow", from the album of the same name.
