Canadian Bryan Adams rose to popularity in 1983 with the release of his third album, "Cuts Like a Knife". The album made him popular throughout the United States. However, it was his fourth album "Reckless", which is referred to as one of the best albums of the 1980s that made him an international superstar and gave him his first Grammy nomination. It also sold four million copies at the time. In 1987, he released "Into the Fire", a more social conscious album. The album yielded a top ten hit "Heat of the Night", another Grammy nomination and another platinum album to his name. However, in 1991, he released the album "Waking Up the Neighbours" which included the single "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You". The song sold more than three million copies in the United States, becoming the second best selling single, second only to "We Are The World". It was also Adams's first Academy-Award nomination and Golden Globe nomination as the song was written for the film 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)'. "Waking Up the Neighbours" sold four million albums in the United States and garnered him six Grammy nominations (a record for a Canadian). He won one for best song written specifically for a motion picture or television ("(Everything I Do) I Do It For You"). In 1993, he released a greatest hits album, titled "So Far So Good", which spawned a #1 hit, "Please Forgive Me". In 1995, Adams released the single "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from the movie Don Juan DeMarco (1994), which became his fourth #1 hit and his second Academy-Award nomination. He is one of two non-American singers to have four number one hits and the most successful Canadian singer ever. In 1996, he released the album "18 Til I Die", which has garnered him another two Grammy nominations. Later that year, he sang and wrote the single, "I Finally Found Someone", a duet with Barbra Streisandfor her movie, У зеркала два лица (1996), later that year. "I Finally Found Someone" became a top ten hit and won Adams his third Academy-Award nomination. He has released three more albums since then, "MTV Unplugged" in 1997, "On a Day Like Today" in 1998 and most recently all of the songs for the Dreamworks animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002) in which Adams got his second Golden Globe nomination for "Best song". He is currently touring the world.
In 2004, ARC Weekly released its chart of top pop artists since the last 25 years and Adams came up at number 13 in the chart with four number-one singles, ten top five hits and 17 top ten hits. Six years after the release of On a Day Like Today, Room Service was released in September 2004. It topped the charts in Germany and Switzerland and peaked at number four in the UK, selling 440,000 copies in its first week in Europe and thus debuted at number one on Billboard's European album chart. The single, "Open Road", was the most successful single from the album and peaked at number one in Canada and number twenty-one in the UK. In May 2008, the album was also released in the US but charted only at number 134 on the Billboard 200.
In 2005, Anthology, the first 2-disc compilation was released, containing two new tracks. The US release features a new version of "When You're Gone", a duet with Melanie C. Also in 2005, Adams re-recorded the theme song for the second season of Pamela's Fox sitcom Stacked.
In 2006, Adams wrote and performed the theme song "Never Let Go" which was featured in the closing credits of the film The Guardian starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Adams also co-wrote the song "Never Gonna Break My Faith" for the film Bobby. The song was performed by the R&B singers Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige and earned him a Golden Globe Nomination in 2007.
Adams released his eleventh album internationally on 17 March 2008. It was appropriately called 11. The album was released in the US exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club retail stores on 13 May 2008. The first single released from the album was "I Thought I'd Seen Everything". Adams did an 11-day, 11-country European acoustic promotional tour to kick off the release of the album. The album debuted at number one in Canada (making it his first album to reach that position since Waking Up the Neighbours in 1991) as well as reaching number two in Germany. In the United States, the album charted at number 80. In May 2009, Bryan Adams announced on his Twitter account that he has started writing and recording a new album in Paris.
Adams was one of the four musicians who were pictured on the second series of the Canadian Recording Artist Series to be issued by Canada Post stamps on 2 July 2009. The total estimated number of Bryan Adams stamps that were printed is one and one-half million.
In December 2009, he wrote, produced and performed the song "You've Been a Friend to Me" for the Disney film Old Dogs.
2010s
In February 2010, Adams released "One World, One Flame" – a track used as a theme song by the German TV Station ARD for their Olympic coverage of Olympic Games in Vancouver.
On 12 February 2010, Adams performed a duet with Nelly Furtado. The song was called "Bang the Drum" and was co-written with Jim Vallance for the opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. The ceremony was held indoors at BC Place Stadium.
Adams performed at a party that Wayne Gretzky and Jaromír Jágr attended during Olympics, this brought all three together once again, following Gretzky's final game in 1999 at Madison Square Garden, when Gretzky then played for the New York Rangers and Jagr was with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Adams then sang the Canadian national anthem and ad-libbed a line to acknowledge Gretzky's departure, singing, "We're gonna miss you Wayne Gretzky."
Adams was one of several well-known Canadian musicians to visit Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper at his official residence. Originally the visit was meant to be Adams's plea to the Prime Minister to change the archaic copyright laws, instead Harper turned it into a photo op for himself and an informal "jam session".In November 2010, Adams released the acoustic album Bare Bones. It was recorded live at various locations on his "Bare Bones Tour" earlier in the year. It was certified gold in India a year later, and he thanked all his Indian fans for supporting him. On 19 February 2011, Bryan Adams and his band played in Kathmandu, Nepal making him the first ever international artist to perform in Nepal which was organized by ODC Network (P) LTD. Bryan Adams performed at the opening ceremony of the International Cricket Council's World Cup tournament on 17 February 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh and also performed in a solo concert in the next day.
On 19 November 2011, Adams wrote and recorded the dance music single/video for the Loverush UK! single "Tonight in Babylon" in Southwark, London.
On 20 November 2011, Adams performed "When You're Gone" on the TV show The X Factor in the UK with the remaining acts in the competition.
On 31 January 2012, Adams announced a 20-date concert tour across Canada between April and June to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the "Waking Up the Nation Tour".
In July 2012, Adams was featured as the voice of the lead character of a dog called Jock, in the animated South African film Jock of the Bushveld. He also wrote and sang two of the main songs: "Way Oh" and "By Your Side". The American released of the film was retitled "Jock the Hero dog".
In 2012, he wrote and sang on the dance song "Tonight In Babylon", by London duo Loverush UK!. This song was also recorded/released on his Bare Bones Sydney Opera House video.
In 2013, he wrote and sang on "After All" with Michael Bublé from his album To Be Loved. Also in 2013, the Bare Bones acoustic show, "Live at the Sydney Opera House" recorded in 2011, is released on DVD and CD.