Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Marie Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American popular music recording artist. She has earned eleven Grammy Awards, two Academy of Country Music awards, an Emmy Award, an ALMA Award, numerous United States and internationally certified gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, in addition to Tony Award and Golden Globe nominations.

A singer, songwriter, and record producer, she is recognized as a definitive interpreter of songs. Being one of music's most versatile and commercially successful female singers in U.S. history, she is recognized for her many public stages of self-reinvention and incarnations.

With a one-time standing as the Queen of Rock, where she was bestowed the title of "highest paid woman in rock", and known as the First Lady of Rock, she later emerged as a music matriarch, international arts advocate and human rights advocate.

Ronstadt has collaborated with artists from a diverse spectrum of genres including Billy Eckstine, Frank Zappa, Rosemary Clooney, Flaco Jiménez, Philip Glass, Carla Bley, The Chieftains, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, and Nelson Riddle. She has lent her voice to over 120 albums. Christopher Loudon of Jazz Times noted in 2004, Ronstadt is "Blessed with arguably the most sterling set of pipes of her generation ... rarest of rarities—a chameleon who can blend into any background yet remain boldly distinctive ... It's an exceptional gift; one shared by few others."

In total, she has released over 30 solo albums and 15 compilations or greatest hits albums. Ronstadt charted thirty-eight Billboard Hot 100 singles with twenty-one reaching the top 40, ten to the top 10, three to No. 2, and "You're No Good" to No. 1. In the UK, her single "Blue Bayou" reached the UK Top 40 and the duet with Aaron Neville, "Don't Know Much", peaked at No. 2 in December 1989. In addition, she has charted thirty-six albums, ten Top 10 albums, and three No. 1 albums on the Billboard Pop Album Charts.