Pink (singer)
Alecia Beth Moore-Hart, known professionally as Pink, is an American singer and songwriter. She is known for her acrobatic stage presence and activism.
Aged 15, Pink formed the short-lived girl group Choice, who signed with LaFace Records in 1995, although they disbanded without major releases. Her first solo album, Can't Take Me Home, was released to commercial success and received double platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Produced by label boss Babyface and influenced by contemporary R&B, the album spawned US Billboard Hot 100-top ten singles: "There You Go" and "Most Girls". Pink gained further recognition for her 2001 collaborative single "Lady Marmalade" from the soundtrack of Moulin Rouge!, which peaked atop 13 international charts, including the US, and earned her first Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. Pink shifted to pop rock with her second album, Missundaztood, which sold over 13 million copies worldwide and yielded three top ten singles: "Get the Party Started", "Don't Let Me Get Me", and "Just Like a Pill".
While Pink's third album, Try This, sold significantly less than her second album, it earned a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Her fourth and fifth studio albums, I'm Not Dead and Funhouse, saw a commercial rebound and spawned the top-ten singles "Who Knew" and "U + Ur Hand", as well as the US number-one single "So What". She scored her third and fourth US number-ones with "Raise Your Glass", as well as "Just Give Me a Reason" from her sixth album, The Truth About Love, which became her first to top the US Billboard 200. In 2014, Pink formed the collaborative folk duo You+Me with Dallas Green, and released the album Rose Ave.. Her following albums, Beautiful Trauma and Hurts 2B Human, saw success and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, with the former becoming the third best-selling album of that year worldwide. Her ninth and latest studio album, Trustfall, peaked at number two on the chart.
Pink has sold over 135 million records worldwide, making her one of the world's best-selling music artists. Pink is the most-played female solo artist in the UK during the 21st century, while Billboard named Pink the Pop Songs Artist of the 2000s Decade. Her accolades include three Grammy Awards, two Brit Awards, a Daytime Emmy Award and seven MTV Video Music Awards and two MTV Europe Music Awards. At the 63rd BMI Pop Awards, she received the BMI President's Award for "her outstanding achievement in songwriting and global impact on pop culture and the entertainment industry", and was honored with the People's Champion Award, the iHeartRadio Music Award Icon Award. Billboard named Pink the 2013 Woman of the Year at the Billboard Women in Music and honored her with the Billboard Icon Award and the Billboard Legend of Live. VH1 ranked her 10th on its list of the 100 Greatest Women in Music.
Early life and family
Alecia Beth Moore was born on September 8, 1979, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to emergency room nurse Judith Moore and insurance salesman James Moore. She has described herself as an "Irish-German-Lithuanian Jew", and her mother is Jewish. Although a healthy baby, she developed asthma that plagued her through her early years. When Pink was a toddler, her parents began having marital problems; they divorced before she was 10.Pink was trained as a competitive gymnast between the ages 4 and 12. She attended Central Bucks High School West. In high school, Pink joined her first band, Middleground, but it disbanded upon losing a Battle of the Bands competition. As a teenager, she wrote lyrics as an outlet for her feelings, and her mother commented, "Her initial writings were always very introspective. Some of it was very black, and very deep, almost worrisome."
Pink began performing in Philadelphia clubs when she was about 14 years old. She adopted her nickname "Pink" as her stage name around this time. She has given different explanations about how she came to be given that nickname, which she has had since she was a child. At 14, she was convinced to audition to become a member of the all-female group Basic Instinct, and earned a spot in the lineup. Ultimately, the group disbanded without releasing any material.
Career
1995–1998: Career beginnings
At 15, Pink and two other teenage girls, Sharon Flanagan and Chrissy Conway, formed the R&B group Choice. A copy of their first song, "Key to My Heart", was sent to LaFace Records in Atlanta, Georgia, where L.A. Reid overheard it and arranged for the group to fly there so he could see them perform. Afterward, he signed them to a recording contract with the label. Since the three girls were under 18 at the time, their parents had to cosign the contract. The group relocated to the label's then-headquarters in Atlanta to record an album. Despite it failing to see a commercial release, their song "Key to My Heart" appeared on the soundtrack to the 1996 film Kazaam. During a Christmas party, Reid gave Pink an ultimatum: "go solo or go home." Choice subsequently disbanded in 1998.1999–2002: ''Can't Take Me Home'' and ''Missundaztood''
After Choice disbanded, Pink signed a recording contract with LaFace Records and began working on her first solo album with producers such as Babyface, Kandi Burruss and Tricky Stewart. Her first solo single, "There You Go", was released in February 2000 and became her first top-ten hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, where it peaked at number seven. Internationally, the song also charted inside the top ten in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. In April, Pink's album, Can't Take Me Home, was released to commercial success. It peaked 26 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for two million units shipped in the U.S. It also went platinum in the United Kingdom and multi-platinum in Australia and Canada, while selling over four million copies worldwide. Critical reception to the album was mixed. The album's second single, "Most Girls", peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and became her first chart-topping single in Australia. "You Make Me Sick" was released as the final single and reached number 33 on the Hot 100.Pink won the trophy for Female New Artist of the Year at the 2000 Billboard Music Awards. She was billed as a supporting act on the North American leg of NSYNC's No Strings Attached Tour throughout the summer of 2000. In 2001, Pink, alongside singers Christina Aguilera and Mýa as well as rapper Lil' Kim, performed a cover of "Lady Marmalade" for the soundtrack of the film Moulin Rouge!. In the US it became the most successful airplay-only single in history, as well as Pink's first No. 1 single. The success of the single was helped by its music video, which was popular on music channels and won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year. The song won Pink's first Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Tired of being marketed as another cookie cutter pop act, as well as eager both to be seen as a more serious songwriter and musician and to perform the type of music she wanted to, Pink took her sound in a new direction and sought more artistic or creative control during the recording of her second album, Missundaztood. She recruited Linda Perry, former singer of 4 Non Blondes. Pink moved into Perry's Los Angeles home where the pair spent several months writing songs for the album. Perry co-wrote and co-produced the album with Dallas Austin and Scott Storch, and according to VH1's Driven program, Antonio "LA" Reid of LaFace Records was not initially content with the new music Pink was making. The album, named Missundaztood because of Pink's belief that people had a wrong image of her, was released in November 2001.
"Get the Party Started" was released as the lead single and peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100. It also became a worldwide hit, reaching number one in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, Romania, and Spain, as well as spending four weeks at the top of the European Hot 100 Singles chart. At the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, its music video won in the categories of Best Female Video and Best Dance Video. The album's other singles—"Don't Let Me Get Me", "Just Like a Pill", and "Family Portrait"—were also radio and chart successes, with "Just Like a Pill" becoming Pink's second number-one hit in the United Kingdom. Missundaztood remains Pink's best-selling record with over 13 million copies sold worldwide. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Missundaztood was the eighth best-selling album of 2002 globally. Pink won a World Music Award for Best Selling American Pop/Rock Female Artist. She was also nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance at the 45th Grammy Awards. Faith Hill's 2002 album, Cry, features a song co-written by Pink and Perry. In 2002, Pink headlined a tour of America, Europe and Australia, the Party Tour, as well as becoming a supporting act for Lenny Kravitz's American tour. Pink was named the Top Female Billboard 200 Artist of 2002.
2003–2007: ''Try This'' and ''I'm Not Dead''
In mid-2003, Pink contributed the song "Feel Good Time" to the soundtrack of the film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, in which she had a cameo appearance as a motocross race ramp owner/promoter. Featuring electronic music artist William Orbit, it became Pink's first single to miss the top 40 on Billboards Hot 100 chart, although it was a hit in Europe and in Australia. It was later included on non-US editions of Pink's third album, Try This, which was released on November 11, 2003. Eight of the 13 tracks were co-written with Tim Armstrong of the band Rancid. Linda Perry was featured on the album as a writer and musician. Despite the album reaching the top ten on album charts in the US, in Canada, in the UK, and in Australia, sales were considerably lower than those of Missundaztood. However, it did go platinum in the US. The singles "Trouble" and "God Is a DJ" did not reach the US top 40 but did reach the top ten in other countries, and "Last to Know" was released as a single outside North America. "Trouble" earned Pink the Grammy award in Best Female Rock Vocal Performance category at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards, and "Feel Good Time" was nominated for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. She toured extensively on the Try This Tour through Europe and Australia, where the album was better received.During the same period, Pink co-wrote the song "Take a Picture" with Damon Elliott which was released on Mýa's album Moodring. In 2005, Pink collaborated with Lisa Marie Presley on the track "Shine", released on Presley's second album Now What. Pink took a break to write the songs for her fourth album, I'm Not Dead, which she said she titled as such because "It's about being alive and feisty and not sitting down and shutting up even though people would like you to." Pink worked with producers Max Martin, Billy Mann, Christopher Rojas, Butch Walker, Lukasz Gottwald, and Josh Abraham on the album. The album's release through LaFace Records in April 2006 was a substantial success throughout the world, particularly in Australia. The album reached the top ten in the US, the top five in the UK, No. 1 in Germany, and was No. 1 in Australia for two non-consecutive weeks.
The album's lead single, "Stupid Girls", was Pink's biggest US hit since 2002 and earned her a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Its music video, in which she parodies celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Paris Hilton, won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop Video. Subsequent singles "Who Knew" and "U + Ur Hand" were substantial hits in Australia and Europe, and they later became top ten singles in the US. in 2007. The non-US singles were "Nobody Knows", a minor hit in the UK, Australia and Germany; "Dear Mr. President", an open letter to the US President George W. Bush which featured the Indigo Girls and became a No. 1 hit in Belgium as well as a top five hit in Germany, Australia, and other countries; "Leave Me Alone ", a UK top 40 and Australian top five entry; and "'Cuz I Can". The album has sold over 1.3 million copies in the US, as well as over 700,000 copies in Australia. The album proved very popular in Australia, with six top five singles and a record-breaking 62 weeks in the top 10; so far the album has gone 10 times platinum.
In support of the album, Pink embarked on the world I'm Not Dead Tour, for which ticket sales in Australia were particularly high; she sold approximately 307,000 tickets in Australia, giving her the record for the biggest concert attendance for an arena tour by a female artist. One of the London shows on the tour was taped and released as a DVD, Pink: Live from Wembley Arena, where she sang Linda Perry's "Whats Up?". In 2006, Pink was chosen to sing the theme song for NBC Sunday Night Football, "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night", which is a take on "I Hate Myself for Loving You" by Joan Jett. She contributed a cover of Rufus's "Tell Me Something Good" to the soundtrack of the film Happy Feet, and lent her name to PlayStation to promote the PSP, a special pink edition of which was released.
Pink collaborated with several other artists in 2006 and 2007, when she opened for Justin Timberlake on the American leg of his FutureSex/LoveShow Tour. She sang on the Indigo Girls album Despite Our Differences. She was featured on India.Arie's song "I Am Not My Hair" from the Lifetime Television film Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy. She wrote a song, "I Will", for Natalia's third album, Everything and More. "Outside of You", another song she co-wrote, was recorded by dance-pop singer Hilary Duff and released on her 2007 album Dignity. Pink recorded a song with Annie Lennox and twenty-two other female acts for Lennox's fourth solo studio album, Songs of Mass Destruction; titled "Sing", it was written as an anthem for HIV/AIDS, according to Lennox's website. In December 2007, a special edition Pink Box, which comprises her second to fourth albums and the DVD Live in Europe, was released in Australia. It reached the top twenty on the albums chart and was certified Gold, selling over 35,000 units.