  Melissa was born on May 29,
1961, and raised in Kansas, and after
studying at Boston' s Berkley College of
Music, she was discovered in Los Angeles by
the found of Island Records. Melissa's road
to stardom started with breaking the barriers
to become a female rocker in a male dominated
rock world, and then retain that audience
when she decided to reveal her sexuality and
become an outspoken supporter for gay and
lesbian rights.
 Melissa's style was introduced
to rock radio with the release of her debut
LP, Melissa
Etheridge. Her style was compared to the
likes of Janis Joplin, and often she was
referred to as a female Rod Stewart. Her debut LP was
considered an impressive debut, awarding her
a Grammy nomination and numerous radio
requests on the rock stations for songs such
as "Bring Me Some Water,"
"Similar Features," and Melissa's
classic, "Like The Way I Do."
 # 174
Singles Artist of the Year
Melissa was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("Bring Me Some Water").
Melissa
Etheridge was certified gold.
 Critical and commercial success
followed with her sophomore release, Brave
And Crazy and the hit "No
Souvenirs."
Brave
And Crazy was certified gold.
Melissa was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female (Brave
And Crazy).
Melissa was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("The Angels").
 Melissa's third LP, Never
Enough, was released with the
favorites "Ain't It Heavy,"
"Dance Without Sleeping," and
"The Letting Go."
Never
Enough was certified gold.
Melissa also reached a personal
milestone: confirming reports that she is a
lesbian. The admission seemed to have little
impact on her career, and with the release of
her fourth LP, Melissa's career would hit
super-stardom.
Never
Enough was certified platinum.
Melissa won her first Grammy
Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("Ain't It Heavy").
 Melissa's following was mostly
from rock fans, as pop success and large
concert stadiums eluded her. Melissa's fourth
LP, Yes
I Am was released and spawned three
Top 10 pop hits: "Come To My Window," "I'm The Only One," and "If I Wanted To." Melissa's
appeal had expanded from the rock category
and across genres. Instead of harming her
career, Melissa's openness about her
sexuality in many ways enhanced her
performances.
Yes
I Am was certified gold.
 # 11
Singles Artist of the Year
 Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"Come To My Window."
Melissa
Etheridge was certified platinum.
Melissa hit the Top 10 with "Come To My Window."
Yes
I Am was certified platinum.
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"I'm The Only One."
Melissa performed at Woodstock
'94.
 Yes
I Am was certified 2x platinum.
Melissa hit the Top 10 with "I'm The Only One."
Brave
And Crazy was certified platinum.
 # 18
Singles Artist of the Year
 Yes
I Am was certified 3x platinum.
Melissa topped the Billboard
Adult Contemporary Singles chart for 2 weeks
with "I'm The Only One."
Melissa appeared on the Boys
On The Side soundtrack with "I Take
You With Me."
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"If I Wanted To."
Melissa hit the Top 10 with "If I Wanted To."
Yes
I Am was certified 4x platinum.
Melissa won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("Come To My Window") and was
nominated twice for Best Rock Song ("Come To My Window" and "I'm The Only One").
Yes
I Am was certified 5x platinum.
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"Your Little Secret."
 Melissa also appeared on MTV
Unplugged and was joined on-stage by her
musical idol, Bruce
Springsteen.
Melissa released her much
anticipated Your
Little Secret which gave her two more Top 10
hits: "I Want To Come Over" and
"Nowhere To Go."
Melissa
Etheridge was certified 2x platinum.
 # 23
Singles Artist of the Year
Melissa was nominated for an American Music
Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female
Artist.
Your
Little Secret was certified platinum.
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"I Want To Come Over."
Melissa hit the Top 10 with "I Want To Come Over."
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"Nowhere To Go."
Melissa hit the Top 10 with "Nowhere To Go."
Yes
I Am was certified 6x platinum.
Melissa's partner, Julie Cypher,
gave birth to their first child - a daughter,
Bailey Jean. The couple have been together
since 1988.
 Your
Little Secret was certified 2x platinum.
It was announced that Etheridge
was no longer involved with the film Piece
Of My Heart - a bio of Janis Joplin.
Musicians including Melissa and
Michael Stipe of R.E.M. offered
their own words of shock, outrage, and
support for the friends and family of Matthew
Shepard, a gay Wyoming student attacked and
beaten to death. Etheridge said to MTV:
"Nothing in our history has ever come
about, no change has ever come about without
great resistance and violent resistance to
it... and then our children's children look
back and go, 'What was that? You mean they
were lynching black men in trees? What were
they talking about?' And my grandchildren
will go, 'Oh my God, they tied up a man like
a scarecrow and left him for dead because he
was gay?' It will just seem so hideously
unthinkable."
Etheridge became a mom again to
a baby boy when partner, Julie Cypher, gave
birth to the couple's second child in
California - a baby boy named Beckett.
Melissa was honored with a
National Family Civil Rights Award.
 # 73
Singles Artist of the Year
Etheridge spoke out about her
views on animal rights and a new LP in the
works. After supporting the animal rights
group, People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA) for many years, Etheridge has
questioned if the group is too extreme:
"In my heart if you asked me if I could
have had my father for a few more years by
testing on an animal, in my heart I would
have to say yes. It is a difficult time and
place we are in scientifically. I know
nothing else but what is in my heart."
Etheridge won an Orville H.
Gibson Guitar Award for Best Blues Guitarist
(Female).
Ranked # 49 on VH1: 100
Greatest Women of Rock & Roll.
Etheridge hit the Top 40 with
"Angels
Would Fall."
 A new LP, Breakdown, was released with the
first single "Angels
Would Fall" (the video for which was
the first directed by Etheridge). Etheridge
talked with CNN about the 4-year span between
LPs: "I needed a break. I had put 5
albums out in 7 years. I had toured for 8
years. I was tired. I though the public
probably needed a break from me too, I think
my last 2 albums kind of blended together.
People didn't know what song was on what...
and, I wanted to start a family. So we
did."
A year after the murder of
Matthew Shepard, Etheridge spoke out to Rolling
Stone about how his death affected her
music and responsibility as an activist:
"The closest I've ever come to being
drained when I was writing was actually
writing "Scarecrow." It was such an
intense subject for me that I would write a
few things down and have to get up and walk
away for a while... My responsibility is my
work, and to be truthful and responsible to
my own path and my own journey. All I can be
is an example."
Melissa hit the Top
10
with "Angels
Would Fall."
Breakdown topped the Billboard
Internet Album Sales chart for a week.
The
Advocate named Melissa as one of the '25
Coolest Women.'
 # 116
Singles Artist of the Year
As reported in Rolling Stone,
the father of Melissa's 2 children is singer David
Crosby - ending much speculation and
rumors. Etheridge stated that she had chose
Crosby because she was a longtime fan of his:
"He's musical, which means a lot to me,
and I admire his work." The
'collaboration' was recommended by Crosby's
wife, and the Rolling Stone issue
featured Etheridge, her partner, and their 2
children, and Crosby and his wife on the
cover.
Etheridge added her name and
time to help fight a move in California that
would deny legal recognition of same-sex
unions.
Breakdown was certified gold.
Melissa was nominated for 3 Grammy Awards for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female and Best Rock Song ("Angels
Would Fall") and Best Rock Album (Breakdown).
Etheridge was nominated for a
Gibson Guitar Award for Best Rock Guitarist
(Female).
Melissa was nominated for a
Gay/Lesbian American Music Award (GLAMA) for
Out Recording of the Year.
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"Enough
Of Me."
Etheridge joined Garth
Brooks, Queen
Latifah, the Pet Shop Boys,
k.d.
lang, and George
Michael to perform in Washington, DC as
part of 'Equality Rocks' - a benefit concert
in support of a gay and lesbian human rights
campaign (Human Rights Campaign). Etheridge said the
event would be "...the largest concert
in history that is dedicated to basic equal
rights for gay Americans."
Melissa told Billboard
that she is planning a 1-woman
autobiographical show she's like to take to
Broadway next year: "I noticed that the
people that I met, in airports or wherever,
wouldn't know that I'd put out a new album,
but they knew about my life. I thought, 'If
radio is going to [concentrate on pop music],
let me do this. Let me play songs that I
wrote when I was 15 for people, as well as do
some new stuff."
Melissa and her partner Julie
Cypher decided to end their 12-year
relationship. A statement released by
Melissa's label read: "With the utmost
of love and respect for one another, we have
decided to separate. As committed parents,
our top priority continues to be what is in
the best interest of our children. Though
elements of our lives will change, our family
will always remain intact."
 # 136
Singles Artist of the Year
 Melissa was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("Enough Of Me").
Melissa won a Gibson Guitar
Award for Best Rock Guitarist Female.
Melissa's autobiography, The
Truth Is... My Life And Love In Music, hit the bookstores.
 Melissa released Skin with the first single
"I Want To Be In Love." Melissa said of
Skin: "It's the
closest thing I've ever come to recording a
concept album. It has a beginning, middle and
end. It's a journey."
Skin topped the Billboard
Internet Album Sales chart for a week.
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"I Want To Be In Love."
Melissa hit the road with her
North American 'Live... and Alone' tour
(after recovering from a case of influenza).
Melissa performed at The
Concert For New York City benefit concert in New
York City (later released as an LP) with
proceeds going to 9/11 chartities.
Melissa was
nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("I Want To Be In Love").
 Melissa
released the DVD Live...
And Alone.
Melissa was
nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal
Performance - Female ("The Weakness In
Me").
Melissa announced her engagement
to girlfriend Tammy Lynn Michaels.
VH1: 100 Best
Songs of the Past 25 Years includes "Come To My Window" at # 91.
Melissa and her girlfriend Tammy
Lynn Michaels exchanged vows in California.
Melissa could be heard on the
compilation tribute to Dolly Parton LP, Just
Because I'm A Woman, with "I Will
Always Love You."
 # 111
Singles Artist of the Year
 Melissa released her next LP Lucky and embarked on a club
tour.
Melissa hit the Top 40 with
"Breathe."
Melissa canceled tour dates
after disclosing that she had been diagnosed
with breast cancer and would be undergoing
treatment. She is expected to have a full
recovery.
# 104 on the Top Pop Artists
of the Past 25 Years chart.
Melissa was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Vocal Solo Performance ("Breathe"). She performed
at the ceremony with the most memorable
performance of the night. Melissa graced the
stage with a bald head reminding everyone of
her fight and recovery from breast cancer as
she performed a tribute to Janis Joplin.
Melissa announced that she had
made a full recovery from breast cancer.
Melissa performed on ReAct
Now: Music & Relief - a benefit
program shown on music video channels to
raise money for those affected by Hurricane
Katrina.
 Melissa released a greatest hits
compilation Greatest
Hits: The Road Less Traveled with the Tom
Petty cover "Refugee" and
new songs "I Run For Life,"
"Christmas In America," and
"This Is Not Goodbye."
Melissa topped the Billboard Top
Internet Album chart with Greatest
Hits: The Road Less Traveled.
Greatest
Hits: The Road Less Traveled was certified
gold.
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