Indigo Girls

Folk rock duo Indigo Girls started making music together in 1981, when Amy Ray and Emily Saliers sang in the Shamrock High School choir in Decatur, Georgia. ∙ They came up with their band name by flipping through the dictionary, deciding they both liked the word indigo. ∙ “Closer to Fine,” their 1989 breakthrough hit, was a collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers. ∙ In 1989, the Indigo Girls won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and were nominated for the Best New Artist award, but Milli Vanilli won. ∙ Ray founded Daemon Records, which has put out albums by such artists as Magnapop, Kristen Hall, and Rose Polenzani. ∙ In a 1994 Atlanta revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, Ray played Jesus and Saliers took the role of Mary Magdalene. ∙ The duo set up the indie label IG Recordings as a vehicle for their own music, releasing three successive Top 5 folk albums during the 2010s.