Etheridge, Melissa (1961–)

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Etheridge, Melissa (1961–)

American musician and singer. Born May 29, 1961, in Leavenworth, Kansas; attended Boston's Berklee College of Music; was a longtime partner of Julie Cypher (director); children: (adopted) Bailey Jean Cypher and Beckett Cypher.

Taught herself guitar starting at age 8; began performing with country group at 12; recorded songs for soundtrack to movie Weeds (1987); released debut album Melissa Etheridge (1988); won 1st Grammy for single "Ain't It Heavy" (1992); publicly came out as a lesbian (1993); released singles "Like the Way I Do" (1988), "Come to My Window" (1994), "I'm the Only One" (1994) and "I Want to Come Over" (1996); sang and played guitar on such albums as Brave and Crazy (1989), Never Enough (1992), Yes I Am (1993), Your Little Secret (1995), Breakdown (1999), and Skin (2001); released single "Scarecrow," a tribute to slain gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard (1999); received significant media attention for longterm relationship with Julie Cypher and for raising two children born to Cypher, both fathered through artificial insemination by musician David Crosby; announced breakup with Cypher (2000).