Linda Eder

Linda Eder is an American singer and actress born on February 3, 1961, in Tucson, Arizona, and raised in Garrison, Minnesota. Her parents, Georg, who was Austrian, and Laila, who was Norwegian, introduced her to music from an early age. Among her formative influences were Judy Garland, Barbra Streisand, and Eileen Farrell, with Garland holding particular significance as her greatest inspiration.

Before reaching Broadway, Eder built her performance experience singing in clubs in Minneapolis and appearing at Harrah's Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1988, she won the television talent competition Star Search, a victory that brought her to the attention of composer Frank Wildhorn. That connection proved pivotal: Eder went on to star in two 1991 stagings of Wildhorn's musical Svengali, including the 1990 world premiere and the 1995–96 national tour, before joining the 1997 Broadway production of his Jekyll & Hyde. She originated the role of Lucy Harris in that production, earning both a Theatre World Award for Best Broadway Debut in the 1996–97 season and a Drama Desk Award nomination. Eder and Wildhorn married in 1998 and divorced in 2004; they have one son, Jake.

Her Broadway appearances between 1995 and 2004 also included Linda Eder at the Gershwin and Linda Eder: The Holiday Concert. In 2003, she starred in the world premiere of Camille Claudel, another Wildhorn work, playing the title role. Her recording career across those years spanned releases on RCA Records, Angel Records, and Atlantic Records, encompassing both solo albums and cast recordings. Her solo discography includes titles such as It's Time (1997), Gold (2002), Broadway, My Way (2003), and By Myself: The Songs of Judy Garland (2005), among numerous others released through 2024. On cast recordings, she portrayed Lucy Harris across multiple Jekyll & Hyde concept albums and the original Broadway cast recording, and voiced Marguerite St. Just on concept recordings of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Following her divorce from Wildhorn, Eder shifted her focus primarily to concert performances, appearing at venues including Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Greek Theater, and the Kennedy Center. She recorded a live album at Skidmore College in 2014, and in 2024 released TOSOM – The Other Side of Me – Live, a recording captured during her 2018 touring concert series of the same name.