Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Lou Etheridge was born on May 29, 1961, in Leavenworth, Kansas, the younger of two daughters of Elizabeth Williamson, a computer consultant, and John Etheridge, a teacher of American Constitution at Leavenworth High School. She began guitar lessons at age eight and played in local country music groups during her teenage years, graduating from Leavenworth High School in 1979. She subsequently enrolled at Berklee College of Music, where she performed on the club circuit around Boston before leaving after three semesters to pursue a music career in Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Etheridge built her early following through performances at lesbian bars, which led to her discovery by Island Records chief Chris Blackwell. Prior to her recording debut, she signed a publishing deal to write songs for films, including the 1986 movie Weeds. Her self-titled debut album, recorded in just four days after an earlier effort was rejected by Island Records, was released in 1988 and peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200. Its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water," earned Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female in 1989. Her second album, Brave and Crazy, also released in 1989, matched her debut on the Billboard charts and generated two additional Grammy nominations.

Etheridge's third album, Never Enough, arrived in 1992 and peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard charts. Its lead single, "Ain't It Heavy," won her first Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. That same year, she established a performing arts scholarship at Leavenworth High School in honor of her father, John Etheridge, who had died in August 1991.

In January 1993, Etheridge publicly came out as a lesbian and has since been an activist for gay and lesbian rights. Later that year, on September 21, she released Yes I Am, co-produced with Hugh Padgham, which became her mainstream breakthrough. The album spent 138 weeks on the Billboard 200, peaked at No. 15, and earned a 6× Platinum certification from the RIAA. Its tracks "Come to My Window," "I'm the Only One," and "If I Wanted To" all reached the Top 40 in the United States, with "I'm the Only One" reaching No. 1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. "Come to My Window" earned Etheridge her second Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. Her follow-up, Your Little Secret, released in 1995, became her highest-charting album, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, and produced two additional Top 40 singles, "Nowhere to Go" and "I Want to Come Over."

Etheridge continued releasing studio albums through the following decades, including Breakdown in 1999, Skin in 2001, and Lucky in 2004. In October 2004, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery and chemotherapy. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she returned to the stage to perform a tribute to Janis Joplin alongside Joss Stone. Stone opened the performance with "Cry Baby," and Etheridge, visibly bald from chemotherapy, joined her for "Piece of My Heart." The performance drew widespread acclaim, and India.Arie subsequently wrote "I Am Not My Hair" in response to it. Later in 2005, Etheridge released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits: The Road Less Traveled, which peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 and received a Gold certification.

In 2006, Etheridge won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "I Need to Wake Up," written for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. That same year, she received an Honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music. In 2007, she was honored with the ASCAP Founders Award, and in September 2011, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2026, she was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Across her recording career, Etheridge has released 16 studio albums, the most recent being One Way Out in 2021, and has received two Grammy Awards from a total of 15 nominations.

Etheridge's Broadway career spanned from 2010 to 2023. She appeared in American Idiot and starred in Melissa Etheridge: My Window, for which she also served as book writer.