1993–1998: Harbinger and This Fire Cole got her first big professional break when she was invited to perform on
Peter Gabriel's 1993–94
Secret World Tour. To replace
Sinéad O'Connor who left the tour, Gabriel sought Cole on the recommendation of his studio engineer
Kevin Killen. Gabriel left an
answering machine message for her at her apartment in San Francisco, and she immediately flew to
Mannheim, Germany, for her only rehearsal with Gabriel, shortly before performing in front of 16,000 people. Cole joined the two last legs of
Peter Gabriel's 1993–94 Secret World tour. A video of the concert was shot just days after Cole joined the tour. Cole was also the main female vocalist on
Secret World Live, the audio album documenting the tour. The tour gave Cole international exposure as well as experience performing on a large stage. Her performance earned high praise: Shortly after the tour, Cole released her first album
Harbinger in 1994. She appeared with
Melissa Etheridge to sing a duet on
VH1. Imago Records went out of business a few months after the album came out. In 1995, Cole signed on to
Warner Bros. Records. Warner reissued
Harbinger in the autumn of 1995.
Harbinger featured songs dwelling on Cole's personal thoughts on
discrimination and unhappiness. The songs were musically lush but driven and bleak. The accompanying artwork featured photographs of Cole with a boyishly short haircut, wearing loose fitting black sweatclothes, combat boots and
nose ring. Imago Records folded and promotion of
Harbinger was limited, affecting its sales. The single "Me" (No. 35 Airplay chart) was also released as a radio-only single. The title "Hush, Hush, Hush", a duet with
Peter Gabriel, talks about AIDS and about a young man dying in his father's comforting arms. "Feelin' Love" was a single that was included on the soundtrack to
City of Angels. In 1996, Cole, along with
Sarah McLachlan,
Suzanne Vega,
Lisa Loeb and others, was a featured performer in a four show mini-tour that served as a prototype for what would become the
Lilith Fair tour. She was also a headliner for the Lilith Fair tours in 1997 and 1998. She was nominated for several
Grammy Awards in 1997. Among them was "Producer of the Year" (Cole was the third woman to ever be nominated in this category after
Janet Jackson in 1990 and
Mariah Carey in 1992, but the first as a solo nomination); she did not win, but she did go on to win "Best New Artist" that same year.
1999–2006: Amen, hiatus, and motherhood In 1999, Cole released her third album, Amen, which she described as a sociopolitical and spiritual album. The album was received well by critics but was not a commercial success. Following the release of Amen, Cole took a seven-year hiatus to care for her daughter. A fourth album was recorded with
Hugh Padgham but the label refused to release it; in 2005 Cole uploaded one of the tracks, "
Singing Out My Life", to her own website to get her sound heard. She also recorded a song called "It's My Life" during these sessions, which can be heard in
Mercury automobile commercials. Cole also made a home recording of a song protesting President Bush and the
Iraq War titled "My Hero, Mr. President!", which she posted on her website.
2007–2013: Courage, Ithaca, and Raven Cole returned in June 2007 with her fourth studio album,
Courage, which was released on
Decca Records and produced by
Bobby Colomby at
Capitol Studios.
Raven, Cole's sixth studio album, was funded by a
Kickstarter campaign which ran from September 22 to October 29, 2012, and raised $75,258. The album was released on April 23, 2013, on her 675 label. Cole wrote the 11 songs on the album including two from early in her career, "Imaginary Man" and "Manitoba". Her mother had saved these songs on cassette tapes. Most of the album was recorded in one week at a barn in Massachusetts. The musicians included co-producer/drummer Ben Wittman, guitarist Kevin Barry and bassist
Tony Levin. She has worked with Wittman and Barry since she was 19. Cole announced that she was selling her new live album
This Bright Red Feeling exclusively on CD at live shows and at her website, with intentions to put it online for digital sale soon. The album is a recording of her live New York City show on May 1, 2016, but also includes re-recordings of two of her biggest commercial hits. The album's title comes from a lyric from her song
Tiger. Cole announced a new
Kickstarter project on June 16, 2016, for a covers studio album,
Ballads. It raised $76,899. The album was released on August 11, 2017. The first single, a cover of
Billie Holiday's "
God Bless the Child", was released on June 1. The album hit No. 9 on the
Billboard Traditional Jazz Album Chart.
2019–2021: Revolution, American Quilt Paula Cole released her ninth studio album,
Revolution, on September 13, 2019, on 675 Records. In 2021, Cole released the album
American Quilt.
2024–present: Lo Cole released her 11th studio album,
Lo, on March 1, 2024. The track "The Replacements & Dinosaur Jr." is a tribute to her late friend and mentor, Mark Hutchins. In 2025, Cole appeared as herself in the documentary film
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – The Untold Story, reflecting on the legacy and impact of the all-female music festival.
Social commentary Cole said her 1996 song "
Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?" was intended as a commentary on gender stereotypes, but the feminist message was misinterpreted by many listeners who did not realize the song was intended to be satirical. which was critical of President
George W. Bush and America's involvement in the
Iraq War. Robert Morast of the
Argus Leader reported that Cole was the first "bona fide mainstream musician" to take a public stance against the Iraq war. Cole's song "Silent", also on the album Revolution, is about her experience of being sexually assaulted early in her career and her refusal to continue to be silent about the experience. In May 2021, Cole told
USA Today that her song "Hidden in Plain Sight" addressed the "shameful history of slavery." ==Other activities==