David Foster
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David Foster, OC, OBC , LL.D. born 1950 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, is a multi Grammy Award winning musician, producer, and composer.
David Foster has worked with Céline Dion, Barbra Streisand, George Harrison, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Chicago, Mariah Carey, Destiny's Child, Anne Murray, Olivia Newton-John and Madonna.
He composed the score for the film "St. Elmo's Fire", which produced two hits, including the instrumental love theme. The other song, "Man in Motion" eventually became more famous for its original inspiration, the Canadian wheelchair activist hero, Rick Hansen, who was attempting a world tour in his chair for his cause.
Recently he has produced debut albums for The Corrs (Forgiven, Not Forgotten), Michael Bublé, Renee Olstead, and Josh Groban, which were released under his own record label, 143 Records, and distributed through Warner Music. He also was one of the Executive Producers of John Stevens' debuting CD, Red.
For his compositions, David Foster earned BMI's "Songwriter Of The Year" honors. He has won fourteen Grammy Awards (three for producer of the year) and has been nominated a total of forty-two times. He also as been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Song and won a Golden Globe Award for the song "The Prayer" from the film Quest For Camelot.
In 1991, he married Linda Thompson and the two worked together on several songs. In 1992 they were nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award for Best Song for their composition of the song "I Have Nothing" sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film, The Bodyguard. Foster, along with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, composed "The Power Of The Dream" as the official song of the 1996 Summer Olympics, with Thompson providing the words. He also composed "Winter Games", the theme song for 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. In 2003, Foster and his wife won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for "The Concert For World Children's Day."
For his work supporting research into children's cancer, leukemia, and AIDS, in 1997 David Foster was honored with the United States Children's Choice Award from the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund. Both Foster and his wife are involved in a number of humanitarian causes and wrote the song "Voices That Care" which they donated to the American Red Cross and the United Service Organizations (USO). In his native Canada, Foster established the David Foster Foundation Society, giving generously of his time and talent to raise money to assist families of British Columbia children who require organ transplants.
In recognition of his achievements and humanitarian work, David Foster was made an Officer Of The Order Of Canada, his country's highest civilian honor, and was given an Honorary Doctorate from the University Of Victoria. He has a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, was awarded the Order Of British Columbia and was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall Of Fame.
David Foster's homelife was featured in an unpopular Fox reality TV show called The Princes Of Malibu, in which he attempts to force his two spoiled step-sons to straighten their lives up and earn their own way.
The show was considered a poor attempt to make his two stepsons, the children of Thompson and Olympian Bruce Jenner, famous. Like Paris Hilton, the two sons have questionable talent but are attractive.
The attempt backfired. The show looked staged (more than usual for a "reality" show), David Foster came across as a bumbling dad, and the show was quickly cancelled. Around that same time, Foster's wife, Linda Thompson, filed for divorce.
He is the father of actress Sara Foster and of singer/songwriter Amy Foster-Gillies, with whom he has collaborated.