Melissa Etheridge

Known for her confessional lyrics and raspy, smoky vocals, Melissa Etheridge has remained one of America’s favorite female singers for more than four decades.

Etheridge stormed onto the American rock scene in 1988 with the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, which led to an appearance on the 1989 Grammy Awards show.

Her initial popularity grew around the strength of her memorable originals such as “Bring Me Some Water,” “No Souvenirs,” and “Ain’t It Heavy,” for which she won a Grammy® Award in 1992.

Etheridge hit her commercial and artistic stride with her fourth album, Yes I Am (1993), which featured the massive hits “I’m the Only One” and “Come to My Window,” a searing song of longing that brought Etheridge her second Grammy® Award for Best Female Rock Performance.

In 1995, Etheridge issued her highest-charting album, Your Little Secret, distinguished by the hit single “I Want to Come Over.” Her astounding success led to Etheridge receiving the Songwriter of the Year honor at the ASCAP Pop Awards in 1996.

In February 2007, Etheridge celebrated a career milestone with a victory in the “Best Song” category at the Academy® Awards for “I Need to Wake Up,” written for the Al Gore documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth.

As a performer and songwriter, Etheridge has shown herself as an artist who has never allowed “inconvenient truths” to keep her down. Very early in her recording career, Etheridge acknowledged her sexual orientation despite it being considered far from prudent at that time. Then, in October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, a health battle she won with her prototypical relentless tenacity. Despite the hair loss from chemotherapy, Etheridge appeared on the 2005 Grammy® telecast to sing “Piece of My Heart” in tribute to Janis Joplin, and by doing so, she gave hope to many women afflicted with the disease.

In October 2016, Etheridge released Memphis Rock & Soul, her first album since 2014’s critically lauded This Is M.E. Recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, this album received rave reviews from Entertainment Weekly, Parade, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter, and more. She followed that up with the release of The Medicine Show in April 2019, where Melissa reunited with celebrated producer John Shanks. Addressing the universal themes of renewal, reconciliation, reckoning, compassion, and, most profoundly, healing, this album sounded as rousing as ever, bringing an even higher level of artistic mastery to her 15th studio recording.

In June 2020, Etheridge launched her live-streaming subscription and single-ticket concert platform, Etheridge TV, and she produced an astonishing 200+ live streams throughout the pandemic.

In September 2021, Melissa released another new album entitled One Way Out. This 9-track album is a collection of songs Etheridge wrote in the late ’80s and early ’90s that never ‘made the cut’…. until now! The time was finally right, and fans finally got a deeper glimpse into who Melissa was then.

October 2022 saw Melissa’s return to the theater with her one-woman show, My Window — A Journey Through Life. This critically acclaimed, sold-out run premiered at an off-Broadway venue, New World Stages, and Melissa parlayed her off-Broadway success into Melissa Etheridge: My Window, a 3-month headline engagement on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre that began in September 2023.

On September 5, 2023, Melissa released Talking to My Angels (HarperCollins), her new memoir that debuted at #9 on the New York Times and #17 on the Indie Bestseller lists. The book continues to climb the charts, receiving significant placements with Apple for the audiobook and extensive promotions with Barnes and Noble.

On November 17, 2023, Melissa will be featured on Dolly Parton’s new single, “Try to Rock and Roll Me.”

In March 2024, Etheridge will release a new 2-hour, 2-part docuseries that debuts on Paramount+ and a new live album that drops concurrently.