Bryan Adams, OC, OBC (born Bryan Guy Adams on November 5, 1959) is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter and photographer. Rolling Stone magazine describes Adams as having an “unerring gift for radio-friendly pop hooks". He has been nominated for several Grammy Awards; and was first nominated at the 28th Grammy Awards for Reckless and "It's Only Love" and won the Grammy and in 1992 won the award for "Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media". He has won countless Junos in Canada, MTV, ASCAP, American Music and Ivor Novello awards. He has also been awarded the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia for contributions to popular music and philanthropic work via his own foundation, which helps improve education for people around the world. Adams was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 1998 and in April 2006, he was inducted into the Music Hall of Fame at Canada's Juno Awards. He was nominated for his fifth Golden Globe in 2007 for songwriting on the film Bobby which was sung by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, and has been nominated three times for Academy Awards for writing music in film.

Adams was born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, to English parents. From his grandmother he also inherited a Maltese ancestry. As Adams' father was a diplomat, he grew up travelling around the world with his parents. Subsequently, most of his youth was spent growing up in Europe and the Middle East, part of the time in Birre, Portugal, situated close to Lisbon. In 1973, Adams' family returned to Canada and settled down in Vancouver, British Columbia. His musical goals began during his teenage years, and as he explained to Carlo D'Agostino from Rolling Stone magazine, "In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls." He washed dishes, sold pet food, and worked in record stores, and at the age of 15, Adams quit school to play in nightclubs with bands like Shock and Sweeney Todd, who released an album called If Wishes Were Horses with the fifteen year old Adams as lead singer. A serendipitous meeting with drummer Jim Vallance in a Vancouver music store led to a song-writing partnership that continues to this day. They wrote songs for many other artists notably Kiss, Prism, and Loverboy . Adams and Vallance were both disenchanted with the club scene and both worked in Vancouver studios doing sessions. As O'Hara from Maclean's magazine phrased it, "Vallance was looking for a singer, Adams was looking for a route to musical respectability, and the two hit it off immediately."

In 1978, at the age of 18, Adams sent a few demo recordings to A&M Records in Toronto, and was signed to them not long afterward for the sum of one dollar. Some of the first demos written in 1978 have surfaced over the years, most notably "I'm Ready" (recorded for both the album Cuts Like a Knife and later his release for MTV Unplugged) and "Remember", which was recorded on his first album. Both songs were covered by other artists even before his first album was released. Also recorded during this time was a demo of the song, "Let Me Take You Dancing".