Born in
Hauppauge,
Long Island, New York, as Candice Lauren Isralow, she took piano lessons for a couple of years. She began modeling as "Candice Loren" at 12 years of age. She appeared in everything from commercials to print ads, and promoted products at trade shows until her 20s. She was once a
Rainbow fan, and met
Ritchie Blackmore to ask him for an autograph in 1989. She provided backing vocals on the instrumental track "
Difficult to Cure" in 1993's European tour of
Deep Purple. She also provided singing backing vocals on "Ariel", "Black Masquerade", "Wolf to the Moon" and "Hall of the Mountain King" for
Stranger in Us All, the CD by Rainbow, as well as writing lyrics for the four songs on the aforementioned album. Despite her being inexperienced as a professional lead singer, Blackmore encouraged her to become his musical partner. She then wrote lyrics for most of the songs on the first
Blackmore's Night album,
Shadow of the Moon where she supplied lead vocals. Those songs were written with her voice in his mind. Night has also composed some full songs, including "Now and Then" on
Under a Violet Moon (1999) and "3 Black Crows" and "Ivory Tower" on
Ghost of a Rose (2003). She continues to write all the lyrics for the Blackmore's Night songs and plays nine renaissance and medieval instruments. Since then, she has been awarded gold albums and other awards for the music of Blackmore's Night, and has charted internationally with the group's music. Their 2008 release,
Secret Voyage, entered at on the
new-age Billboard Charts and stayed there for four weeks, and then held on in the top 10 for an additional 14 weeks. She continues to be involved in music, performing both on CDs and in concert, writing lyrics, singing, and playing medieval instruments:
shawm,
cornamuse,
rauschpfeife,
pennywhistle, and
chanters. In 2006, Night sang on
Helloween's "
Light the Universe" song from their
Keeper of the Seven Keys: The Legacy album, and she also appeared In Helloween's music video for that track. She played the part of Oria in the
rock opera Story of Aina, with
Sass Jordan and
Glenn Hughes. She sang three songs on
Beto Vázquez Infinity's
eponymous album with
Tarja Turunen from
Nightwish and Sabine Edelsbacher from
Edenbridge. The Blackmore's Night song "Old Mill Inn" was heard in Jim Carrey's 2008 film
Yes Man. She also appears on interactive video screens throughout the US and Japan in the theme park
MagiQuest as both Princess Amora and Princess Candice. These parks now have a cooperation throughout the US. She was also the Faerie Queen for
Faerie Magazine for two years, appearing on the cover in spring 2007, and making appearances and performing at the Faerie Festivals throughout the US. After being engaged for nearly fifteen years, Night and Blackmore married in October 2008. Their daughter, Autumn, was born on May 27, 2010, and was the inspiration for Blackmore's Night's album,
Autumn Sky, which was released in September 2010. On February 7, 2012, Night gave birth to their second child, a son named Rory Dartanyan. She made her first solo album
Reflections, which was released in October 2011. All songs were written by Night and consist of mostly
soft rock ballads. Her 2nd solo release was "Starlight, Starbright". Inspired by the birth of her children, this collection of songs are covers of classic favorites as well as new composition meant to bring the listener to the land of dreams. In September 2018,
Avantasia's mastermind
Tobias Sammet announced that Night joined the cast for the eighth studio album of the
supergroup. She provided co-lead vocals (together with Sammet himself) for the track "
Moonglow", from the
album of the same name (2019). Candice and
dArtagnan released the duet ''We're Gonna Be Drinking'' in 2022. "It's Too Late" featuring Candice Night and
Dweezil Zappa was released on July 1, 2022, as part of The Prog Collective's album
Songs We Were Taught. It is a cover of the Carole King song, released via Cleopatra Records. Her latest solo release,
Sea Glass, charted upon its April 2025 debut and was named Goldmine Magazine’s Song of the Year. == Discography ==