Regina Ilyinichna Spektor (/rɪˈdʒiːnə ˈspɛktər/, Russian: Реги́нa Ильи́нична Спе́ктор, IPA: ; born February 18, 1980) is a Russian-born American singer-songwriter and pianist. She was born in Moscow (former Soviet Union, now Russia), and began classical training on the piano at the age of six. When she was nine years old, her family emigrated from the Soviet Union to the United States, where she continued her classical training into her teenage years; she began to write original songs shortly thereafter.
After self-releasing her first three records and gaining popularity in New York City's independent music scenes, particularly the anti-folk scene centered on New York City's East Village, Spektor signed with Sire Records in 2004 and began achieving greater mainstream recognition. After giving her third album a major label re-release, Sire released her fourth album, Begin to Hope, which would go on to achieve a Gold certification by the RIAA. Her following two albums, Far and What We Saw from the Cheap Seats, each debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200. 2016's Remember Us to Life peaked at 23 on the Billboard 200.