American singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge was BOTD in 1961. Born in Leavenworth, Kansas to a middle class family, she began playing guitar aged 8 and performed in country music groups as a teenager. She attended Berklee College of Music, dropping out to move to Los Angeles and pursue a music career. Her self-titled 1988 debut album peaked at No 22 on the Billboard 200, earning praise for her gritty soulful rock sound, and earning a Grammy nomination for the single Bring Me Some Water. She won her first Grammy for the single Ain’t It Heavy, from her 1992 album Never Enough. She became an international star with her 1993 album Yes I Am, released in 1993, spawning three hit singles Come to My Window, I’m the Only One and If I Wanted To and earning her a third Grammy award. Released shortly after Etheridge’s public coming-out as lesbian, it earned her a substantial queer fanbase. She achieved further success throughout the 1990s and 2000s with the albums Breakdown, Skin and Lucky. After a hiatus while she was treated for breast cancer, she made a stunning public return at the 2005 Grammy Awards, appearing bald on stage while performing a tribute to Janis Joplin. In 2006, she won an Oscar for best original song for I Need to Wake Up, written for the documentary An Inconvenient Truth. A prominent activist for LGBTQ rights, she has also campaigned for breast cancer charities and climate change causes. Etheridge was in a long-term relationship with Julie Cypher, creating a tabloid storm after Cypher left her marriage to be with her They had two children together, separating amicably in 2000. In 2002, Etheridge began dating Popular actress Tammy Lynn Michaels, who was 13 years her junior; they were civilly partnered in 2003 and had two children together before separating in 2010. Etheridge has been married to Linda Wallem since 2014. Her most recent album One Way Out, released in 2021, was inspired by the death of her son Beckett, who succumbed to opioid addiction.