David Foster

2022 Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award (Popular Music)

Songwriter, composer, performer, producer and philanthropist

David Foster is one of Canada’s most successful popular music writers and producers. He has worked with leading music artists across the country and around the world, and helped launch the careers of such exceptional talents as Celine Dion, Michael Bublé and Josh Groban. A generous philanthropist, notably through his eponymous foundation, he has donated his time and talent to more than 400 charities, and has hosted, produced or directed numerous benefit concerts.
 
David Foster was born in 1949 in Victoria, B.C. From his early days as a studio musician, arranger and recording artist, he became one of the most successful songwriters and record producers in history, shepherding albums that have collectively sold in the hundreds of millions. As a performer, he has become a household name throughout Asia, where he tours annually. He is currently gearing up to take on Broadway with a new musical about the animated character Betty Boop.
 
Nicknamed “The Hit Man,” he is known for his collaborations with Barbra Streisand, Natalie Cole, Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Andrea Bocelli, Josh Groban, Michael Bublé and the group Chicago, and for the successful charity single “Tears Are Not Enough.” He produced such international hits as “Hard Habit to Break,” “The Glory of Love,” “The Power of Love,” “Un-Break My Heart” and “I Will Always Love You,” and created soundtracks for the blockbuster films The Bodyguard, Urban Cowboy and St. Elmo’s Fire.
 
“If there’s any magic at all to what I do,” he says, “it’s that I try to create surprise moments where I imagine the audience would leap to their feet.” Among his favourite compositions, he cites “The Prayer,” a duet he wrote for Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli.
 
In 1986, he established the David Foster Foundation, a charitable organization that provides financial support to Canadian children in need of life-saving organ transplants.
 
David Foster is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Member of the Order of British Columbia. He has won 16 Grammy Awards, an Emmy, a Golden Globe and the Juno Humanitarian Award; he is a member of the Canadian Walk of Fame, Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has two honorary doctorates. David Foster: Off the Record, an official feature documentary on his life and career, was released in 2019.