On this day in 1979 P!nk was born
Gaten Matarazzo (Stranger Things actor) was also born today, as well as Swedish DJ Avicii, who would have turned 30 years old.
P!nk (Pink) is a singer-songwriter who was born on 8 September 1979 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She was born Alecia Beth Moore, but got her stage name from a character called Mr Pink in the movie Reservoir Dogs. This character is someone all her friends agreed she resembled.
P!nk found solace in music; she was seen as the bad influence in her friendship group and was not allowed at their houses, so she started navigating the Philly club scene at an early age, performing at a nightclub every Friday night.
By chance one night, a record executive saw her perform and asked her to audition for an R&B group called Basic Instinct. The group, however, could not gain the traction it needed to be a success and disbanded two years later. She joined a second band, called Choice, which also came to a quick end in 1998.
LaFace, the Choice’s former record label, supported her in a solo career after the band disbanded. She changed her name from Alecia Moore to P!nk and started recording her first solo album. Can’t Take Me Home was released in 2000 and was a smash hit. The album went double-platinum and created three Top 10 singles.
P!nk was terrified of being grouped with the large amount of pretty singers who dominated the market, so she then set her sights on an edgier sound, saying that her first album had very little emotion in it.
In 2001 she collaborated with Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim in a soulful remake of Patti LaBelle’s hit Lady Marmalade. Later that same year, Get the Party Started, a single from her second album, was released and it climbed to the Top 5. Her second album went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide.
P!nk won a Grammy for Best Female Rock Performance from her third album Try This, which was released in 2003.
Album after album, success after success, P!nk is nowhere near stopping. Not only has she released eight studio albums, five live albums and five compilation albums; but she is also a spokesperson for female empowerment everywhere. She preaches self-love and acceptance, especially to her daughter Willow Sage Hart.
