Melissa Etheridge

Booking Fee: Contact us below  Artist Location: United States  IMDb   Twitter   Wikipedia

Melissa Etheridge's Bio: Melissa Etheridge was born on May 29, in Leavenworth, Kansas. She was still only a teenager when she began playing piano and guitar in various covers bands around Kansas. After this grounding she had a more formal training at the Berklee College Of Music before playing the club circuit around Boston.

However, her career took off after relocating to Los Angeles, where Island Records chief Chris Blackwell discovered her. Signed in 1986, her first break was writing the music for the movie "Weeds." She had recruited one band to work with her but when this did not work out, she settled for a simple trio with Kevin McCormick on bass and Craig Krampf on drums. The first album was recorded live in the studio and spawned the single "Bring Me Some Water." A turntable hit, it took some time to pick up sales but ended up a Grammy nominee. Former Iggy Pop sideman Scott Thurston made a guest appearance on the first album and returned for the second, along with U2's Bono. Krampf did not play on the album, as he had been replaced by Maurigio Fritz Lewak.

Etheridge won a Grammy in the best female rock vocal performance in 1992 and 1994, and scored several mainstream hits, such as "Come to My Window," "I'm the Only One" and "I Wanna Come Over." She also announced herself as a lesbian by jumping onstage to kiss Elvira at the gay and lesbian Triangle Ball during the inaugural celebrations of President Clinton's victory. She won the 1996 ASCAP songwriter of the year award, but took a lengthy break from the music business to concentrate on her domestic arrangements.

She returned in 1999 with the intimate, low-key Breakdown, followed by Skin in 2001. In 2003 she appeared on a tribute album to Dolly Parton and shared the stage with her on CMT Crossroads. Etheridge offered the studio album Lucky in 2004, and followed up with a Greatest Hits compilation in 2005.

In 2007, her song “I Need to Wake Up” from the documentary An Inconvenient Truth took home an Academy Award for Best Song, and was nominated for a Grammy in the same category. She followed this with the 2007 studio release "The Awakening," and the 2008 Christmas album "A New Thought For Christmas." 2010 saw Melissa in the studio again, releasing "Fearless Love" in April of that year.

She has won the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance twice in her career, for the song “Ain’t It Heavy” in 1992 and “Come to My Window”, in 1994.

Melissa has long been active in promoting equal rights for gays and lesbians, receiving GLAAD's Stephen F. Kolzak Award in 2006. She is also a breast cancer survivor, and dedicates much of her time to supporting cancer-related causes. … Read more