Melissa Etheridge

Since releasing her self-titled debut in 1988, award-winning singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge has sold more than 25 million albums. ∙ In 1986, Etheridge was spotted playing in a bar by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who was so impressed with her songs and performance that he offered her a three-album deal. ∙ Powered by the radio hits “Bring Me Some Water” and “Like the Way I Do,” her first LP, Melissa Etheridge, hit the Top 25 in the US, Australia, Austria, and the Netherlands. ∙ Coproduced by Hugh Padgham (Peter Gabriel, The Police, Sting), her 1993 album, Yes I Am, sold more than 6 million copies in the US alone. ∙ Etheridge has won two Grammy Awards for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance—1992’s “Ain’t It Heavy” and 1993’s “Come to My Window.” ∙ “I Need to Wake Up,” from the soundtrack for the 2006 documentary An Inconvenient Truth, won her an Academy Award for Best Original Song. ∙ She has reached the US Top 40 with 13 of her 15 studio albums, most recently with 2016’s acclaimed covers collection Memphis Rock and Soul.