Happy International Women’s Day! Celebrate all the strong women in your life both on and off the radio!

 

1. Gwen Stefani was just 17 when she joined No Doubt in 1984.

2. Although she was born in New Delhi, India, Metric’s Emily Haines was raised in Toronto.

3. Since 2013, Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine has been organizing her own book club called “Between Two Books”.

4. Bishop Briggs first sang publicly at 4 years old. She sang karaoke in Tokyo.

5. Jordan Miller, Kylie Miller, Leandra Earl and Eliza Enman-McDaniel make up The Beaches. They were offered their first record deal while most of them were still in high school.

6. Elle King has an AC/DC tattoo on her bicep.

7. Before pursuing music, K. Flay attended Stanford University, double majoring in psychology and sociology.

8. MIA calls “Paper Planes” her “underdog song”, saying “it’s about the underdog and it’s when I felt like an underdog, but it’s become the biggest song.”.

9. Serena Ryder was just 17 when she left home to pursue music. She made ends meet by working at a Cajun restaurant in Peterborough, Ontario.

10. Before meeting Jack White, Meg White was planning on becoming a professional chef.

11. Amy Cole of the Rural Alberta Advantage has also worked as a producer and writer on a variety of television shows.

12. Molly Guldemond of Mother Mother makes masks in her spare time. Bandmate Jasmin Parkin owns a yoga studio in Squamish, BC.

Night terror mask 2/4 #tonguetied #paperclay #gouache #mmyart #maskmaker

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13. Arcade Fire’s Régine Chassagne plays multiple instruments including the accordion, drums, xylophone, keyboards, organ and hurdy-gurdy.

14. Before naming her band after her hometown, Dear Rouge’s Danielle McTaggart played in a band called Gaetz Ave, named after a street in Red Deer.

15. At the 2017 Edmonton Music Awards, Nuela Charles took home the awards for Single of the Year, Female Artist of the Year and R&B/Soul Recording of the Year.

 

16. Said the Whale’s Jaycelyn Brown has been a classically trained pianist since she was 5 and in a rock band since she was 20.

17. Courtney Love was raised in a gender-neutral home. Her mother was adamant about breaking gender-roles.

18. Major Love’s Colleen Brown’s ballad “I Love All Of You” was a finalist for the Unsigned Only International Songwriting Competition in 2017.

19. Tegan and Sara Quin formed their first band at 15 called Plunk without a guitarist or a drummer.

20. On International Women’s Day 2013, Bif Naked spoke at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, BC. She received an honorary doctorate from the school that same year.

If I had to describe what it is like to see my story, my book, (called “I, Bificus” of course) in a store ( and so quietly, just sitting there, perched and poised and vulnerable and waiting to show my nakedness, my dreams, my shame, my darkest fears and lucky triumphs to strangers) I have to admit that I am always and forever elated. I STILL SQUEEEE ( and have to stifle this little audible squeak of joy in most places) ?? I am very very grateful to my manager Peter Karroll and to my editor Jim Gifford, for letting me be myself and use my voice and words ( and complete lack of grammar haha) It was difficult for me to share many of the more delicate tales…… but the young, middle finger waving, defiant feminist in me…and the sexual being in me…. and the lovingkindness promoting, mindful yogini in me, had to Speak My Truth. And so I did. I hope my story brings strength to other individuals who had pain or have pain or shame or worry, and I hope it brings laughs and relief. Thank you to all the bookstores and retailers, on the ground and online, who share my words with the world. Working on my #audiobook and Book number two, now. With an open heart filled with thanks, I post this on a Friday afternoon. Thank you for reading my words. ?? Available-wherever you get your books, published by @harpercollinsca cover photo by the legendary @karolinaturek #memoir #feminine #feminist #highfemme #rocker #musician #writer #womenwriters #amwriting #words #music #poetry #truth

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21. Bethany Schumacher of the Royal Foundry worked as a photographer before forming the band.

22. Alice Merton lived in four different countries before she was 13. She studied at Popakademie; a conservatory for popular music in Mannheim, Germany.

23. Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O collaborated with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on a cover version of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” for 2011’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo soundtrack.

Love ya NY NY rg @weallwantsomeone #yeahyeahyeahs

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24. Before forming Of Monsters and Men, singer Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir worked as a video store clerk.

25. Prior to joining Fitz and The Tantrums, Noelle Scaggs fronted her own band The Rebirth for 10 years and collaborated with artists like the Black Eyes Peas, Dilated Peoples, Quantic, Mayer Hawthorne, Defari, and Damian Marley.

26. During a 2016 show, July Talk’s Leah Fay called out a heckler that told her to “show her tits” saying, “Do you listen to our music? Do you have any idea what this band is about?”.

27. The Lumineer’s Neyla Pekarek joined her school orchestra at nine years old. She’s been playing the cello for over two decades.

28. The success of Lorde’s “Royals” made her the youngest solo artist to achieve a number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 since 1987. (She was born in 1996.)

29. Alanis Morisette released Jagged Little Pill when she was 20 years old. It has gone one to sell over 33 million copies.

30. The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan sang for the Pope three times, each time at the Vatican’s annual Christmas party in 2001, 2002 and 2005.

 

Happy International Women’s Day, LAAADIEEEZZZ!!!

Filed under: GRL PWR, Hey Ladies, International Women's Day