Susanna Hoffs

Susanna was born on Januari 17, 1959 in LA. She has two older brothers and her father is a psychiatrist and her mother a movie director. She is married and has two children, Jackson (1995) and Jack (1998). The rumour goes that she is now pregnant with child number 3.
She was already talented at an early age and learned to play the guitar when she was very young. Her parents are very open minded and let her very free during her youth. She played in "The Psychiatrists" before forming The Bangles, or the Bangs as they were called back then, which concerts always lasted 50 minutes, just as long as one hour session at a real psychiatrist.

Susanna is known as the face of the Bangles and she sung a lot of Bangles hits. She is the most romantic Bangle with the most ballads and the touchiest love songs on her name. She co-wrote all her hits and mostly she wrote together with Vicki, but also with the famous composer duo Steinberg/Kelly. Her voice is pretty wellknown and easy to discover.

During her Bangles career, she featured in a movie her mother directed, called "The Allnighter". She plays the leading part, as being a college student before graduating and having a last big night of party. The movie flopped, but Susanna enjoyed acting very much. She even got nude in the film, but you don't see much of it.

It is said that she sung all the songs on "Everything" nude, or at least "Eternal Flame". The truth never got cleared up, allthough Susanna said she did sing "Eternal Flame" nude and she liked it so much that she sung in the rest of the album also nude. The other girls can't say if she really did, they haven't seen it.

Because she was seen as the face of the Bangles, this may have caused the split up. It's said that the video to "Eternal Flame" had to be re-cut, because Debbi (and the rest) thought that Susanna was seen in it too much. Susanna herself claims that they simply had been together for too long and that it started to look like a long marriage. It's also said that during the last tour, she asked herself and the others why they are still doing it, afterall they have been together for 10 years then. But also she said that she couldn't stand the fighting and the childish behaviour anymore. She was planning to write a book about the last period of the Bangles, with all the juicy details, but actually never did. Maybe it wasn't even true (that rumour).

She has started a solo carreer instead, releasing two albums: "When you're a boy" in 1991, with the singles "My side of the bed" which became a bit of a hit and "Unconditional love", a cover from Cindy Lauper. What you really miss are the other Bangles. After getting engaged with Donovan Leitch jr., break the engagement and marrying Jay in 1993, she released her self titled second album in 1995. This album looks more like a desperate catch up with other female rock artists. It's not a bad album, but she just tried a little bit too hard. Her third solo album is expected in 1999.

My favourite Susanna songs are "He's got a secret", "Everything I wanted" and from her second solo album "Enormous wings".

MICHAEL VICKI DEBBI