Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Her self-titled debut album was released in 1988 and became an underground success. It peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200 and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in 1989. Her second album, Brave and Crazy, appeared that same year and earned Etheridge two more Grammy nominations. In 1992, Etheridge released her third album, Never Enough, and its lead single, "Ain't It Heavy", won Etheridge her first Grammy Award.

In 1993, she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album, Yes I Am. Its tracks "I'm the Only One", "If I Wanted To", and "Come to My Window" all reached the Top 40 in the United States, while the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy Award. Yes I Am spent 138 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaking at No. 15, and earning a RIAA certification of 6× Platinum, her largest selling album to date. Her fifth album, Your Little Secret, was released in 1995 and peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, her highest-charting album to date. Its tracks "Nowhere to Go" and "I Want to Come Over" both reached the Top 40 in the United States.

Etheridge achieved further success with her albums Breakdown (1999), Skin (2001), and Lucky (2004). In October 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and chemotherapy. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she made a return to the stage, performing a tribute to Janis Joplin with Joss Stone. Stone began the performance with "Cry Baby" and Etheridge, bald from chemotherapy, joined her to perform the song "Piece of My Heart". Their performance was widely acclaimed. Later that year, Etheridge released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled. A great commercial success, it peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard 200, and went Gold almost immediately. Etheridge has released 17 studio albums to date, the most recent being Rise (2026).

Etheridge is known for music with a mixture of "confessional lyrics, pop-based folk-rock, and raspy, smoky vocals". She has been a gay and lesbian rights activist since her public coming out in January 1993. Among her various accolades, Etheridge has received two Grammy Awards (from 15 nominations), and an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I Need to Wake Up" from the film An Inconvenient Truth (2006). In September 2011, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2026, Etheridge was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Etheridge was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two daughters of Elizabeth (Williamson), a computer consultant, and John Etheridge, an American Constitution teacher at her alma mater, Leavenworth High School. John Etheridge died in August 1991.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.