Diane Birch

Diane Birch was born 1983 in Michigan but has lived with her family in Zimbabwe, South Africa and Australia before moving back again to the states, settling in Portland Oregon. She released her first album called Bible Belt in 2009. The list of guest musicians for her first album is pretty impressive, including drummer Cindy Blackman (nr 16 on my Coolest Women In Music list).

Shirley Brown

Shirley Brown had her biggest hit in 1975 with the song Woman to Woman. The song spent two weeks at #1 in the Billboard R&B chart, and it was a million-selling single which also was nominated for a Grammy Award. Apart from this single Brown didn’t have much success with her with her recordings. Through the years she continued recording and has signed with many different labels. Since 1989 she I based in the southern states of the US where she is a popular performer and signed to a Mississippi label called Malaco Records.

Little Dragon

The name Little Dragon is the name of an electronic band with Yukimi Nagano as lead singer. It started out as a nickname Nagano eared for her temper in the studio. The name stuck and became the name of the band. Therefore, Little Dragon is the name of the band AND a nickname for Nagano. Yukimi Nagano is born in Sweden raised by her Swedish-American mother and her Japanese father. Aside from performing with her own band she has sung with Swedish jazz group Koop and has made guest appearances for Gorillaz (some claim that she provides the voice for the character Noodle in the band on their latest album Plastic Beach).

Laura Nyro - who is she?

Laura Nyro, born in New York 1947, is relatively unknown as a singer and her songs have had more success covered by other artists. Blood, Sweat and Tears, Peter, Paul and Mary, Barbara Streisand and The 5^th Dimension are a few examples of artist that have had hits with her songs. Ironically, Nyro herself had her biggest success with a song written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin called Up on the Roof. She never enjoyed her status as a celebrity. At the age of 24 she announced her retirement from the music business. A few years later she came back and released four more studio albums before she past away in 1997. During those years she turned down both The Tonight Show and The Late Show with David Letterman because of her discomfort with appearing on television. She only did a handful of TV appearances which might explain why she has remained relatively unknown.

Zoë Kravitz

With those parents who could expect anything else from this girl than that she would become a singer in a rock band? I can’t remember how I discovered her music, or rather the band’s music (she is the front singer of the band Elevator Fight). But I do know I was pleasantly surprised. I thought it would be yet another mainstream band. I also thought that their only reason for being famous was that they had Lenny Kravitz’ daughter as lead singer. Now I’m more surprised that I can’t find their music anywhere except for some live recordings on YouTube. I really like what I’ve heard so far. One of my favourites I don’t even know if it’s a song by the band or a solo song by Zoë. All I have found is a typical YouTube clip showing photos that have absolutely nothing to do with the music. If the information on the video is correct the song is called It’s OK.

Sia Furler - fun vs. sad?

She is quirky, fun and surprisingly at the same time almost melancholic in her songs. I heard her for the first time in a record store in Liverpool. I knew from the moment I sat foot in that store I would walk out of there with the CD in my bag, and I did. After having heard three songs I bought the CD and the following two weeks I longed for my CD player at home so I could hear the rest of it. This singer is born in Australia but moved to England where her music career started to take of. As well as Alice Russell she is featured on the album Here Lies Love (note that I’m trying to make you check out that album). Come to think of it… It might have been a bad idea to present these two the same day. They might look alike with the short blonde hair. But try not to mix them up.  

Alice Russell – so called blue eyed soul?

This year Fatboy Slim and David Byrne’s collaboration album Here Lies Love was released. Several musicians have lent their voices and skills to help form this interesting album. One of the voices you can hear is the voice of British singer Alice Russell. When I heard this song, Men Will Do Anything, for the first time I had to find out who it was singing with that beautiful soul voice, which to me resembled the voice of Chaka Khan. It turned out to be a singer I had never heard of and I started looking up clips. On one of the clips somebody had expressed a disappointment that “mindblowing talents like Alice Russell and Sia Furler remain largely unknown” in the shadow of Amy Winehouse. Anyway, I’m doing what I can to help spread the word around. Check her out!

What now? The theme continues - cool women in music

I enjoyed writing about what I love – music. So I’ll continue writing, whether people read it or not. To me it was like a treasure hunt, trying to find the brightest, most sparkling diamond among female musicians. I discovered some really good clips I hadn’t seen before, heard songs I wouldn’t have heard if it wasn’t for this list and learned new facts about different artists. It became a reason for discovering new music. Therefore I decided to continue my search for good music and cool musicians, sticking to my theme: cool female musicians.


But this time I won’t make a list. There will be no count down. I will just present cool ladies who deserve some spotlight (So if you have any tips: they’re most welcome!) Some may be more known to the big crowds than others.

And who knows, if I come up with a new, really good theme I might do a list again. Count down to Easter perhaps?