艾莉森·克劳丝

Alison Maria Krauss (born July 23, 1971) is an American bluegrass singer and musician. She entered the American music industry at an early age, competing in local contests by the age of eight and recording for the first time at 14. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join Union Station, releasing her first album with them as a group in 1989 and performing with them ever since.

Krauss has released 14 albums, appeared on numerous soundtracks, and helped to spark a renewed interest in bluegrass music in the United States. Her soundtrack performances have led to further popularity, including the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack and the Cold Mountain soundtrack, which led to her performance at the 2004 Academy Awards. Platinum-selling Raising Sand (2007) was the first of her two collaborations with English rock singer Robert Plant.

As of 2025, she has won 27 Grammy Awards from 46 nominations, ranking her fourth behind Beyoncé, Quincy Jones, and classical conductor Georg Solti for most Grammy Award wins overall. Krauss was the singer and female artist with the most awards in Grammy history until Beyoncé won her 28th Grammy in 2021. When Krauss won her first Grammy in the 33rd Annual Grammy Awards in 1991, she was the second-youngest winner at that time.

On November 21, 2019, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in September 2021.

Early life

Alison Maria Krauss was born in Decatur, Illinois, to Fred and Louise Krauss.

Krauss is of mostly German descent and has some Italian ancestry as well. Fred Krauss is a German immigrant who came to the United States in 1952 at age 12 and taught his native language while he earned a doctorate in psychology. He later went into the business of real estate; among the properties he owned was the so-called American Football House, located at 704 W. High St. in Urbana, which was featured on the cover of the first album by emo band American Football. Louise Krauss, an American of German and Italian descent, is the daughter of artists and works as an illustrator of magazines and textbooks. Fred and Louise met while they were studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

After a brief residence in nearby Decatur where Alison was born, the family settled in Champaign, where she was raised with her older brother, Viktor.

Krauss's mother played banjo and acoustic guitar, so Krauss was exposed to folk music at home, and she heard rock and pop music on the radio: She liked Gary Numan's synth-pop song "Cars" and rock bands such as Foreigner, Bad Company, and Electric Light Orchestra. Her brother, Viktor, played piano and double bass in high school, launching a career as a jazz and rock multi-instrumentalist. At her mother's insistence, Krauss began studying classical violin at age five. Krauss was reluctant to spend time practicing, but she continued with classical lessons until she was eleven. Krauss said her mother "tried to find interesting things for me to do" and "wanted to get me involved in music, in addition to art and sports". Krauss was also very active in roller skating, and in her teens she finally decided on a career in music rather than roller derby.