MELISSA ETHERIDGE & JOSS STONE

Melissa Etheridge

Melissa Etheridge stormed onto the American rock scene in 1988 with the release of her critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, which led to an appearance on the 1989 Grammy Awards show. For several years, her popularity grew around such memorable originals as "Bring Me Some Water," "No Souvenirs" and "Ain't It Heavy," for which she won a Grammy in 1992. Etheridge hit her commercial and artistic stride with her fourth album, Yes I Am (1993). The collection featured the massive hits, "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window," a searing song of longing that brought Etheridge her second Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Performance. In 1995, Etheridge issued her highest charting album, Your Little Secret, which was distinguished by the hit single, "I Want to Come Over." Her astounding success that year led to Etheridge receiving the Songwriter of the Year honor at the ASCAP Pop Awards in 1996.

Known for her confessional lyrics and raspy, smoky vocals, Etheridge has remained one of America's favorite female singers for more than two decades. In February 2007, Melissa Etheridge celebrated a career milestone with a victory in the "Best Song" category at the Academy Awards for "I Need to Wake Up," written for the Al Gore documentary on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. As a performer and songwriter, Etheridge has shown herself to be an artist who has never allowed "inconvenient truths" to keep her down. Earlier in her recording career, Etheridge acknowledged her sexual orientation when it was considered less than prudent to do so. In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, a health battle that, with her typical tenacity, she won. Despite losing her hair from chemotherapy, Etheridge appeared on the 2005 Grammy telecast to sing "Piece of My Heart" in tribute to Janis Joplin. By doing so she gave hope to many women afflicted with the disease.

On October 7, 2016 Melissa Etheridge released Memphis Rock & Soul, her first album since 2014's critically lauded This Is M.E. Recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis, the album received stellar reviews from the likes of Entertainment Weekly, Parade, Rolling Stone, American Songwriter and more. She followed that up with the release of The Medicine Show in April, 2019. For The Medicine Show, Melissa reunited with celebrated producer John Shanks and sounds as rousing as ever, bringing a new level of artistry to her 15th studio recording.

In June of 2020, Etheridge launched The Etheridge Foundation to support groundbreaking scientific research into effective new treatments for opioid use disorder. The Foundation works towards advancing treatment approaches that address the root causes of opioid abuse and make available better, more effective solutions for people to truly heal their opioid use disorder.

In 2021, Melissa returned with then album One Way Out. The 9-track album is a collection of songs Etheridge wrote in the late '80s and early '90s that never made the cut… .until now! The time was finally right, and fans finally got a deeper glimpse to who Melissa was then.

October 2022 saw Melissa's return to the theatre with her one woman show, My Window — A Journey Through Life. The critically acclaimed, sold-out run premiered at New World Stages on October 13 and opened at Circle In the Square Theatre on Broadway in September 2023.

2024 saw Melissa release Melissa Etheridge: I'm Not Broken, a two-part docuseries (Paramount+) and accompanying live album. Recorded live within the grounds of the Topeka Correctional facility the album and two-part docuseries follows her journey both penning and performing an original song inspired by her correspondence with residents of the TCF and features raw and rousing versions of specially curated fan favorites and original songs.

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Joss Stone

Joss Stone is a Grammy and Brit award-winning artist who released her star-making critically acclaimed debut album, The Soul Sessions, in 2003, aged just 16. Since then, she has released nine studio albums which have sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

Stone has kept the company of musical royalty, performing alongside legendary artists such as James Brown, Herbie Hancock, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Sting, Van Morrison and Melissa Etheridge. In addition, she has collaborated with and contributed to albums for many of the world's finest musicians, including Jeff Beck, Mick Jagger, and Damien Marley, and garnered over one billion streams in the US alone.

Stone has been known to experiment with different styles in her own work as well, and her albums feature an exciting patchwork of various influences, creating a catalogue characterised by the fusion of her powerhouse soul vocals with reggae, world music, and hip-hop soundscapes.

A double Brit Award and Grammy winning artist, Joss Stone is without question among the most iconic soul singers of the modern era, a preternaturally gifted vocalist and songwriter whose remarkable career now spans two decades with no sign of slowing down. From 2003's internationally acclaimed, chart-topping debut album, The Soul Sessions, to making history with 2004's RIAA platinum certified Mind Body & Soul as the then-youngest-ever female artist to top the UK Albums Chart. The Kent born, Devon based artist, who has recently split her time between the UK and the U.S, has crafted eight highly accomplished solo albums, not to mention soundtrack hits, film and tv appearances, and collaborations with a who's-who of music royalty, including Mick Jagger, Jeff Beck, Nas, Raphael Saadiq, Sheila E, and many more. Four more acclaimed albums followed, Introducing Joss Stone in 2007, which marked the highest ever entry, at No.2, on the US album charts by a British female, Colour Me Free in 2009 and Soul Sessions 2 in 2012.

The year prior, saw Stone's fifth album and first full-length collaboration with Dave Stewart, LP1, which made a top 10 debut on the overall Billboard 200 upon its July 2011 release — Stone's third consecutive top 10 album on the U.S.charts. LP1 "conjures the spirit of another supplanted smokey Brit songstress in the steamy South: Dusty in Memphis," wrote Paste. "Where Stone stands out — as producer Dave Stewart realises — is in her restraint…In a world where machined dance fodder, rap-deckled pop and lumbering rawk dominates, a genuine article of soul music — especially one where the thick bass, tumbling Wurlitzer and bright guitars set the tone — is a joyous noise, indeed."

LP1 was followed that same year by the arrival of SuperHeavy, the all-superstar combo comprising Stone, Stewart, Mick Jagger, Damian Marley, and A.R. Rahman. Co-produced by Stewart and Jagger, the group's self-titled debut album was met by acclaim from Rolling Stone, which declared it to be "terrifically fun…the spirit is dazzling" in a four-starred rave review.

Stone's seventh studio album, 2015's Water For Your Soul, saw her pushing her artistic boundaries to encompass diverse elements of world music influences. The acclaimed collection debuted at #1 on Billboard's "Top Reggae Albums" chart and eventually proved the best-selling current reggae album of 2015, once again displaying Stone's uniquely successful gift for bridging musical genres.

Over the last decade, in addition to writing and recording new music, Stone embarked on her audacious Total World Tour in 2014, performing gigs and collaborating with local artists in over 200 countries. In addition, she also created The Joss Stone Foundation to work alongside a global network of charities and partners to provide solutions and deliver locally in cultures and communities around the world. She completed this mammoth undertaking in 2019. Following that Stone has launched a successful podcast "A Cuppa Happy," along with a her Facebook Live cooking show "Cooking With Joss," and in February 2021 she won season two of the smash hit competition series The Masked Singer UK, dressed as a sausage! In January 2022 she co-headlined a US tour with fellow Brit, Corinne Bailey Rae, leading up to the release of her 8th album in February 2022, the critically acclaimed "Never Forget My Love," produced by Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, and written by Joss and Dave at Bay Street Studios, Bahamas and recorded at Blackbird Studios, Nashville.

This was followed in late 2022 by her first ever Xmas album, 'Merry Xmas, Love,' released through Steve Greenberg's S- Curve/Hollywood Records, reuniting her with the man who signed her for her debut Soul Sessions album. 2022 also saw the momentous arrival of Joss' second child Shack, following the birth of her first child, daughter Violet, the previous year.

2023 is already shaping up to be an exciting year with further shows planned and the West End debut of The Time Traveller's Wife musical, which she co-wrote music and lyrics for with long time collaborator, Dave Stewart.