Alannah Myles was born in Toronto, Ontario. She is the daughter of Bill Myles, a Canadian broadcast pioneer. Her first album "Eponymous" was released in 1988. The song "Black Velvet" from the album was a hit worldwide in 1990.

She started performing in Southern Ontario when she was 16 years old. The same time she met Christopher Ward a songwriter who encouraged her to start her own band. After starting her own band she performed versions of Aretha Franklin, T. Rex, AC/DC, Bob Seger, Anne Peebles, the Rolling Stones, and the Pretenders. She then joined David Tyson to produce her debut album Alannah Myles. She also acted in the TV series program "The
Kids of Degrassi Street" with David Tyson in 1984. In this series she played the role of a hopeful singer and a single mother.

Her album Alannah Myles was released in 1989. Her second album Rockinghorse was released in 1992. For the songs from her second album she was nominated for the Grammy Awards and she also won three Juno Awards for her second album.

She participated in the third semi-finals of Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest with the Swedish band Kee Marcello's K2 in February 2005. Their song "We Got It All" finished seventh out of eight songs.