Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Lou Etheridge born May 29 1961 is an American singer songwriter musician and guitarist Her eponymous 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 Aint It Heavy won Etheridge her first Grammy Award In 1993 she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album Yes I Am Its tracks Im 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 highestcharting 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 and IndiaArie later wrote I Am Not My Hair about Etheridge 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 16 studio albums to date the most recent being One Way Out 2021 Etheridge is known for music with a mixture of confessional lyrics popbased folkrock 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 She received the Berklee College of Music Honorary Doctor of Music Degree in 2006 The following year she was honored with the ASCAP Founders Award In September 2011 she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Description above from the Wikipedia article Melissa Etheridge licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia