Helen Reddy

b. 25 October 1942, Melbourne, Victoria Australia, Reddy was a big-voiced interpreter of rock ballads whose I Am Woman became a feminist anthem. From a show business family, she was a child performer and had starred in her own television show before winning a trip to New York in an Australian talent show in 1966. There, an appearance on the influential TONIGHT SHOWled to a recording contract with Capitol and a 1971 hit single with I Don't Know How To Love Him from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Jesus Christ Superstar. The following year, the powerful I Am Woman was a US million-seller and over the next five years, Reddy had a dozen further hit singles. Among them were the contrasting number 1s, Alex Harvey's modern country ballad Delta Dawn (1973), and the chilling, dramatic Angie Baby in 1974. Her 1976 song I Can't Hear You No More was composed by Carole King and Gerry Goffin while Reddy's final Top 20 record was a revival of Cilla Black's 1964 hit You're My World, co-produced by Kim Fowley. Reddy also became a well-known television personality, hosting the MIDNIGHT SPECIALshow for most of the '70s, taking a cameo role in AIRPORT 75 and starring in the 1978 film PETE'S DRAGON. She also sang Little Boys, the theme song for the film THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (1983).