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Krall was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, into a musical family. She began learning the piano at age four. During her youth the family moved to Vancouver. In high school, she started playing in a small jazz group. At the age of fifteen, she started playing regularly in several Nanaimo restaurants.

Her playing attracted the attention of bass player Ray Brown, who brought her into touch with influential teachers and producers. At age seventeen, she won a scholarship from the Vancouver Jazz Festival to study at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After three terms she moved to Los Angeles to study with Jimmy Rowles, with whom she also began to sing. In 1990, Krall relocated to New York. Diana Krall and British musician Elvis Costello married in December 2003.

Professional career

In 1993, Krall released her first album, Stepping Out, which she recorded with John Clayton and Jeff Hamilton. It caught the attention of producer Tommy LiPuma, who produced her second album, Only Trust Your Heart (1995).

Her third, All For You (A tribute to the Nat King Cole trio) (1996), was nominated for a Grammy and continued for 70 weeks in the Billboard jazz charts. Love Scenes (1997) quickly became a hit record with the trio of Krall, Russell Malone (guitar) and Christian McBride (bass).

Orchestral arrangements by Johnny Mandel provided the background on When I Look In Your Eyes (1999); more Grammy nominations came along, and she was rewarded as Best Jazz Musician of the Year. The band mix was kept, following arrangements on The Look of Love (2001) created by Claus Ogerman; this record achieved platinum status and reached the top 10 of the Billboard 200. The Look of Love went to number one on the Canadian album charts and went quadruple platinum in that country. The title track from the album reached number 22 on the adult contemporary chart.

In September 2001, Krall began a world tour. Her concert at the "Paris Olympia" was recorded and released as her first live record. Diana Krall - Live in Paris topped the Billboard jazz charts, went top 20 on the Billboard 200 and went top 5 in Canada. It garnered her second Grammy (Best Vocal Jazz Record) and a Juno Award.

In December 2003, she married Elvis Costello. Under his influence, she started to write and compose on her own; together they made an album, The Girl in the Other Room, which was released in April 2004 and quickly rose to the Top 5 in the UK and made the Australian top 40 album charts. "Temptation", a cover of the Tom Waits song off his Frank's Wild Years album of 1987, reached number 1 of the World Jazz Charts (based on the US, Germany, France, Japan and China) and reached the US Top 40 on the pop charts.

In 2000, she was awarded the Order of British Columbia. In 2003 she was given an honorary PhD (Fine Arts) from the University of Victoria. In 2005, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.