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Curated playlist

American feminist musicians

  • MadonnaMadonna arrived in New York in 1978 with thirty-five dollars. It was her first plane ride and first taxi.
  • Lady GagaLady Gaga's name may have come from a phone typo. Producer Rob Fusari said autocorrect turned "Radio Ga Ga" into "Lady".
  • Taylor SwiftEvery record label in Nashville turned Taylor Swift away when she was 11. She kept going and began writing songs.
  • Katy PerryKaty Perry grew up in a home where the word "luck" was banned. Her pastor mother said it reminded her of Lucifer.
  • Janet JacksonJanet Jackson was seen at the 1983 American Music Awards wearing a hoop earring with a key attached to it. She has worn variations of that earring in music videos and live shows ever since. The pair she wore between 1987 and 1990 is now on…
  • BeyoncéOn the 13th of December 2013, Beyoncé released a complete album on the iTunes Store with no warning and no promotion. Within six days it had sold one million digital copies, a record for any album on iTunes at the time. The artist behind…
  • Aretha FranklinOtis Redding said Aretha Franklin took his song "Respect" away from him. Her version hit number one in 1967.
  • Queen LatifahQueen Latifah picked her name from a book of Arabic names at age eight. She added the title "Queen" herself.
  • Lauryn HillLauryn Hill stood at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards and said, "This is crazy. This is hip-hop!" She had just become the first woman to win five Grammys in a single night. Her wins spanned album, song, vocal performance and best new artist,…
  • Missy ElliottMissy Elliott and Timbaland wrote and produced nine tracks on Aaliyah's 1996 album One in a Million.
  • Cyndi LauperCyndi Lauper wore almost a pound of necklaces to the Grammy Awards ceremony in 1985. The excess suited the woman wearing it. Lauper is an American singer, songwriter and actress, born on the 22nd of June 1953. She is known for eccentric…
  • Ariana GrandeAriana Grande organized a benefit concert after the Manchester Arena bombing. It raised $23 million.
  • Miley CyrusMiley Cyrus was eight years old when she grabbed her father's arm in a Toronto theatre. In 2001 the family lived in Toronto while Billy Ray Cyrus filmed the television series Doc. He took her to see a Mirvish production of Mamma Mia! at…
  • Cardi BCardi B reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart dated the 25th of September 2017, with a song called "Bodak Yellow." No solo female rapper had topped that chart since Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)" in 1998. The woman behind…
  • SelenaSelena Quintanilla-Pérez was 23 years old when she died on the 31st of March 1995, and major television networks interrupted their regular programming to announce it. She was a singer from Texas who performed Tejano music, a…
  • Christina AguileraChristina Aguilera sang "A Sunday Kind of Love" on the television contest Star Search in 1990 and was eliminated in the semi-final round. That loss decided nothing. She would go on to sell more than 100 million records worldwide, and…
  • Dolly PartonDolly Parton refused to give Elvis Presley half the publishing rights to "I Will Always Love You."
  • Kelly ClarksonKelly Clarkson's first single debuted at number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. The following week it rose to number 52. Then it shot to number one, breaking a record for the biggest leap to the top that The Beatles had…
  • Demi LovatoDemi Lovato, an American singer, songwriter and actress, sang the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Eighteen years earlier, in 2002, Lovato was a child playing a character named Angela on the children's series Barney & Friends.…
  • KeshaKesha's big break in 2009 came from walking into a recording session by accident.
  • Pink (singer)Pink, the American singer and songwriter born Alecia Beth Moore, once walked out to sing the US national anthem before Super Bowl LII while fighting influenza. For her it was the fulfilment of a childhood dream. As a girl in 1991, she had…
  • Halsey (singer)Halsey, the stage name of Ashley Nicolette Frangipane, once looked at a bank account holding nine dollars. She spent it on a four-pack of Red Bull. The caffeine kept her awake for two or three days, because she judged sleeping somewhere…
  • Courtney LoveCourtney Love walked on stage at the Reading Festival on the 26th of August 1994 as the singer of Hole. It was her first public performance since the death of her husband, the Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. MTV called the set "by turns…
  • Hayley WilliamsHayley Williams was 16 years old when her band Paramore released its debut album, All We Know Is Falling, in 2005. Readers of Alternative Press later voted her second in a poll of the five greatest pop-punk vocalists of all time. Yet…
  • Eddie VedderEddie Vedder was born Edward Louis Severson III on the 23rd of December 1964 in Evanston, Illinois. The surname the world knows him by was not the one he was born with. He grew up to become the lead vocalist, primary lyricist and one of…
  • Phoebe BridgersPhoebe Bridgers ended her Saturday Night Live performance by smashing her guitar on a fake stage monitor. Moments earlier she had played "Kyoto" and "I Know the End" for a national television audience. Bridgers was born in Pasadena,…
  • Idina MenzelIn 1992, a young singer named Idina Menzel recorded a demo of a song called "In Your Eyes" and was paid $75 for the job. The song went on to win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, sung by the Irish performer Niamh Kavanagh. That story…
  • Linda RonstadtLinda Ronstadt sings harmony on Under African Skies, a track on Paul Simon's album Graceland, and its second verse contains a line written for her. The line reads, "Take this child, Lord, from Tucson, Arizona...." Simon's tribute suits a…

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