50 Fun Facts About Women in Music

Which Canadian singer won the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest while representing Switzerland?

Celine Dion, then 20, sang in French and beat the United Kingdom by one point after Yugoslavia's jury gave the British entry nothing.

Which pop superstar spent part of her childhood on a Christmas tree farm in Pennsylvania?

Taylor Swift named a 2019 festive single after the farm. Her family moved to Tennessee when she was 14 to help her break into country.

Which instrument did Lizzo play on stage in 2022, using a crystal one once sent to James Madison?

Flute was Lizzo's classical study at university. The Library of Congress, which keeps the crystal one sent to Madison in 1813, let her play it at a Washington arena concert.

Which country star wrote 'I Will Always Love You' as a farewell to her mentor Porter Wagoner?

Dolly Parton wrote it in 1973 as she ended a seven-year partnership with him to go solo. She has said she wrote 'Jolene' around the same time.

Which pop star, whose stage name echoes a Queen song, wore a raw beef dress to the 2010 MTV awards?

Lady Gaga, born Stefani Germanotta, took her name from Queen's 'Radio Ga Ga'. Taxidermists later preserved the meat dress as a kind of jerky for display at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Which soul singer turned Otis Redding's song 'Respect' into a civil rights and feminist anthem?

Aretha Franklin recorded her version in 1967, two years after his. In 1987 she became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Which singer was declared a National Hero of Barbados on the night the island became a republic?

Rihanna, born Robyn Fenty in the parish of Saint Michael, received the honour from Prime Minister Mia Mottley during the 2021 republic ceremony.

Which singer co-wrote 'All I Want for Christmas Is You', which first topped the US Hot 100 in 2019?

Mariah Carey released the song in 1994, so the climb to number one took 25 years. It also made her the first artist to top the Hot 100 in four separate decades.

Which British singer named albums after her age when writing them, including '19' and '21'?

Adele once said '25' would be her last album titled this way, the end of a trilogy. She then released '30' in 2021.

Which singer, born Anna Mae Bullock in Tennessee, made a comeback with the album 'Private Dancer'?

Tina Turner grew up in the farming community of Nutbush, which she later sang about in the hit 'Nutbush City Limits'.

Which pop star wore a cone-cupped corset by designer Jean Paul Gaultier on her 1990 Blond Ambition tour?

Madonna recruited the French designer herself. The show was so provocative that Pope John Paul II publicly urged audiences to boycott it.

Which singer became the first Black woman to headline Coachella, a 2018 set filmed as 'Homecoming'?

Beyoncé built the show around the marching bands and step shows of historically Black colleges. The festival was nicknamed Beychella that year.

Which singer's rendition of the US national anthem at the 1991 Super Bowl was released as a single?

Whitney Houston sang it during the Gulf War and the single's profits went to charity. Reissued after the September 11 attacks, it charted all over again.

Which Colombian singer performed 'Waka Waka', the official song of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?

Shakira borrowed its chorus from 'Zangaléwa', a 1986 hit by the Cameroonian band Golden Sounds that she had heard as a child in Colombia.

Which singer's 1998 dance hit 'Believe' pioneered Auto-Tune as a deliberately robotic vocal effect?

Cher was 52 when the song reached number one in the US, and the warped sound was copied so widely that it became known as the Cher effect.

Which Louisiana-raised singer went from 'The All-New Mickey Mouse Club' to her debut '...Baby One More Time'?

Britney Spears was 16 when the single came out, and it topped the charts in more than 20 countries.

Which British group, whose members got nicknames such as Scary and Posh, debuted in 1996 with 'Wannabe'?

Spice Girls owe those nicknames to the staff of Top of the Pops magazine, who made them up after a lunch with the group.

Which English singer's 'Running Up That Hill' became a hit again in 2022 after featuring in 'Stranger Things'?

Kate Bush had topped the UK chart at 19 with 'Wuthering Heights', the first number one there by a woman with a fully self-written song.

Which Welsh singer recorded the themes for three James Bond films, starting with 'Goldfinger'?

Shirley Bassey, born in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, went on to sing 'Diamonds Are Forever' and 'Moonraker' as well.

Which London singer of 'Back to Black' and 'Rehab' won five Grammys in one night in 2008?

Amy Winehouse missed the Los Angeles ceremony because her visa was not approved in time, so she performed by satellite from a London studio.

Which rock band, fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, had 1970s hits with 'Barracuda' and 'Magic Man'?

Heart entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013, when the sisters played with the band's original members for the first time in 34 years.

Which Texas-born singer found fame at Monterey in 1967 fronting Big Brother and the Holding Company?

Janis Joplin died in 1970 at the age of 27. 'Pearl', released the next year and titled after her nickname, became the biggest-selling album of her career.

Which singer became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, in 2019?

Stevie Nicks went in with Fleetwood Mac in 1998 and as a solo artist in 2019. Her song 'Dreams' is the group's only US number-one single.

Which singer wore a dress shaped like a swan to the 2001 Academy Awards, where she performed a nominated song?

Björk mimicked laying an egg on the red carpet in the outfit, by designer Marjan Pejoski. She wore it again on the cover of her album 'Vespertine'.

Which French singer, whose stage surname is Paris slang for a sparrow, wrote the words to 'La Vie en rose'?

Édith Piaf stood only 142 centimetres tall, which helped inspire the nightclub owner Louis Leplée to nickname her the Sparrow Kid.

Which Detroit-born singer fronted the Supremes on twelve US number-one singles before going solo in 1970?

Diana Ross joined the group as a teenager when it was called the Primettes, a sister act to the Primes, who went on to become the Temptations.

Which scat-singing jazz vocalist broke through in 1938 with the nursery-rhyme hit 'A-Tisket, A-Tasket'?

Ella Fitzgerald co-wrote the song while singing with Chick Webb's band. Years later she forgot the words to 'Mack the Knife' live in Berlin, improvised new ones and won a Grammy.

Which jazz singer, nicknamed Lady Day, recorded the anti-lynching protest song 'Strange Fruit' in 1939?

Billie Holiday needed a one-session release from her Columbia contract to record it. She first sang it at Café Society, New York's first integrated nightclub.

Which New Zealand singer topped the US Hot 100 at the age of 16 with her debut single 'Royals'?

Lorde chose her stage name out of a fascination with aristocracy, adding the final letter to make the word look more feminine.

Which Texas-born star, hailed as the Queen of Tejano Music, was played by Jennifer Lopez in a 1997 film?

Selena had to learn Spanish phonetically, with her father's guidance, to record her first album, and was still far from fluent years later.

Which Canadian songwriter wrote the anthem 'Woodstock' despite missing the 1969 festival for a TV talk show?

Joni Mitchell wrote it from her boyfriend Graham Nash's account of the weekend. Her manager had told her that appearing on The Dick Cavett Show would do more for her.

Which songwriter, a 1960s hitmaker with husband Gerry Goffin, made the chart-topping 1971 album 'Tapestry'?

Carole King's album stayed at number one in the US for 15 consecutive weeks. A decade earlier the couple had written the Shirelles' chart-topper 'Will You Love Me Tomorrow'.

Which country singer made a 1961 hit of 'Crazy', a ballad written by Willie Nelson?

Patsy Cline's recording became a country standard and, by 1996, the most-played song on American jukeboxes. She died in a plane crash in 1963, aged 30.

Which country singer from Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, was played by Sissy Spacek in an Oscar-winning 1980 film?

Loretta Lynn told her story in the 1976 memoir 'Coal Miner's Daughter', named after her own hit song, and the film of it won Spacek the Best Actress award.

Which blues singer first recorded 'Hound Dog', written for her in 1952, before Elvis Presley covered it?

Big Mama Thornton's version spent seven weeks at number one on the R&B charts. It was the first record produced by the song's writers, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Which singer and rapper made the first hip-hop album to win the Grammy for Album of the Year?

Lauryn Hill recorded most of 'The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill' at Tuff Gong, the studio Bob Marley built in Kingston, Jamaica.

Which Virginia-born producer became the first female rapper inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Missy Elliott was nominated in 2023 in her first year of eligibility. Four years earlier she had become the first female rapper in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Which folk singer won country music's Song of the Year in 2023 after Luke Combs covered her 1988 hit?

Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' made her the first Black woman to win a Country Music Association award. She sang it with Combs at the Grammys the following February.

Which Irish singer topped charts worldwide in 1990 with 'Nothing Compares 2 U', a song written by Prince?

Sinéad O'Connor's version arrived five years after Prince first gave the song to his side project the Family, for the band's 1985 debut album.

Which singer's a cappella song 'Tom's Diner' was used by engineers to fine-tune the MP3 audio format?

Suzanne Vega earned the title Mother of the MP3 after the German engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg used her recording as his reference while developing the compression scheme.

Which Runaways co-founder was turned down by 23 record labels before 'I Love Rock 'n Roll' topped the US chart?

Joan Jett put out her rejected debut album herself on Blackheart Records, a label started with her producer's daughter's college savings.

Which pianist and singer, born Eunice Waymon, wrote the civil rights protest song 'Mississippi Goddam'?

Nina Simone had trained to be a classical concert pianist, and blamed racism when the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia turned her down.

Which instrument did Jacqueline du Pré play in the Elgar concerto that became her signature piece?

Cello recordings brought du Pré international fame at 20, but multiple sclerosis forced her to stop performing in public in her late twenties.

Which South African singer of 'Pata Pata' was barred from returning home for her mother's funeral in 1960?

Miriam Makeba found her passport had been cancelled. After she spoke against apartheid at the United Nations, her citizenship was revoked too, and she went home only in 1990.

Which Australian soprano had both a peach dessert and a crisp dry toast named in her honour?

Nellie Melba was itself a stage name, taken from her home city of Melbourne. The chef Auguste Escoffier created the peach dish for her at London's Savoy Hotel.

Which contralto sang at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after being refused the stage at Constitution Hall?

Marian Anderson gave the open-air concert on Easter Sunday. In 1955 she became the first Black American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera.

Which touring festival of female-led acts did Canadian singer Sarah McLachlan found in 1997?

Lilith Fair grew out of her frustration with promoters and radio stations that refused to feature two female musicians in a row.

Which 12th-century German abbess composed sacred chants and 'Ordo Virtutum', an early musical morality play?

Hildegard of Bingen also wrote on theology, medicine and natural history. In 2012 Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of the Church.

Which German pianist and composer, who premiered many works by Brahms, appeared on the 100 Deutsche Mark note?

Clara Schumann's banknote portrait came from an 1835 lithograph, made when she was a teenage piano prodigy. The note circulated until the euro arrived in 2002.

Which BBC Radiophonic Workshop musician built the original 'Doctor Who' theme from electronic sounds in 1963?

Delia Derbyshire got no on-screen credit until the show's 50th anniversary special. Composer Ron Grainer was so amazed by her version that he asked whether he had really written it.