Helen Reddy

Helen Reddy was born on October 25, 1941, in Melbourne, Australia, into a show business family. Performing on the Australian vaudeville circuit from age four, she won a national talent contest in 1966 that gave her a ticket to New York City. Facing institutional sexism and refusal from American record labels who claimed women 'didn't sell records', Reddy persevered with unyielding determination.

In 1971, Reddy scored her first hit with 'I Don't Know How to Love Him' from Jesus Christ Superstar. The following year, she co-wrote and recorded 'I Am Woman'. Driven by the lyrics 'I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore', the song captured the zeitgeist of the second-wave feminist movement, becoming an international platinum smash and hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Winning the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, she famously thanked God, 'because She makes everything possible.'

Throughout the 1970s, Reddy reigned as the 'Queen of 1970s Pop', charting fifteen Top 40 hits in the US, including No. 1 smashes 'Delta Dawn' (1973) and 'Angie Baby' (1974). She made television history as the first Australian to host a prime-time network variety show in the United States ('The Helen Reddy Show' on NBC) and starred in Disney's classic 'Pete's Dragon' (1977). In 2006, she was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Her extraordinary life inspired the 2019 biopic 'I Am Woman'.