Helen Reddy

Helen Reddy was an Australian-American singer and activist, born on 25 October 1941 in Melbourne, Australia, into a family of vaudeville performers, and she died on 29 September 2020. She moved to New York City to pursue a recording career and broke through in the early 1970s, becoming one of the most prominent voices in American pop of that decade.

Her 1972 single «I Am Woman» became an anthem of second-wave feminism and won her a Grammy Award, making her the first Australian artist to win in a major pop category. She followed with a run of hits on the Billboard Easy Listening and pop charts, including «Delta Dawn», «Angie Baby», «Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress)», «You and Me Against the World», and «Candle on the Water», the latter recorded for a Disney film. Her sound favored polished, radio-friendly pop and soft rock with clear, emotive vocals.

At her commercial peak in the mid-1970s, Reddy hosted NBC’s «The Midnight Special» and made frequent television appearances, cementing her as a mainstream entertainment figure as well as a recording artist. Her chart presence declined by the early 1980s, but «I Am Woman» in particular remains one of the most enduring feminist anthems in popular music history.