Women in Entertainment

Esperanza Spalding

The most successful and admired female songwriter in the history of pop music, Carole King proves that one woman alone at the piano can be more powerful than a four-piece rock band or a 30-piece orchestra. She grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where her mother was a teacher and her father a firefighter. She learned to play the piano at age four and formed her first band in high school. At age 18, she scored her first Number One hit record – the first of 118 pop hits on the Billboard charts, including such classics as “Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “The Loco-Motion,” “Up on the Roof,” It’s Too Late, Baby,” “I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet,” “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” and “You’ve Got a Friend.” To date, she has recorded 25 solo albums, the most successful of which, Tapestry, sold 25 million copies, and for a quarter of a century held the record for a female artist for most weeks at the top of the charts. The recipient of the 2013 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2013 Gershwin Prize, she is a member of the Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For more than a half century, she has given voice to her innermost truth, and struck a resounding chord in the hearts of listeners around the world. Composer and performer, author and activist, she has brought the same passion, courage and unyielding honesty to her life, to her work, and to her defense of the woods and wildlife of her beloved Rocky Mountains. Carol King received the Gold Medal of the Academy of Achievement in a ceremony at the Academy's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on February 12, 2014. In this podcast, recorded on that occasion, Carole King discusses her life and career. Her remarks are interspersed with excerpts from her performance at the Academy earlier that evening.

Carole King

Audra McDonald is unparalleled in the breadth and versatility of her artistry as both singer and actress. With a record-tying five Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and a long list of other accolades to her name, she is among today's most highly regarded performers. Blessed with a luminous soprano voice and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth-telling, she is equally at home on Broadway and opera stages as in roles on film and television. In addition to her theatrical work, she maintains a major career as a concert and recording artist, regularly appearing on the great stages of the world. Audra McDonald was inducted into the Academy of Achievement in 2012. In this podcast, recorded on that occasion at the Academy's Washington, D.C. headquarters, she sings a few of her favorite songs, including 'Summertime' and 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' The podcast also includes highlights of an exclusive interview with Audra McDonald.

Audra McDonald

Colbie Caillat was barely out of her teens when she established herself as one of America's premier singers and songwriters. She released her first album, Coco, in 2007, just weeks before her 22nd birthday. The album debuted at Number 5 on the Billboard magazine charts, driven by the hit single 'Bubbly,' and quickly sold over two million units. Billboard named her the 'Breakthrough Artist of the Year.' Her second album, fittingly titled Breakthrough, debuted at Number 1 and confirmed her status as a hitmaker. Caillat won two Grammys that year, for 'Lucky,' a duet with Jason Mraz, and for co-writing Taylor Swift's hit 'Breathe.' In 2010, she was named 'Songwriter of the Year' by Broadcast Music International (BMI). She closed out the year by performing at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Oslo, Norway. In 2011, she released her third album, All of You, with its hit singles, 'I Do' and 'Brighter Than the Sun.' To date, she has sold over six million albums and ten million singles worldwide. Her fourth album, Christmas in the Sand, appeared in 2012. As a youth delegate to the 2012 International Achievement Summit, Colbie Caillat performed a number of her songs at the Banquet of the Golden Plate, held at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. This podcast combines highlights of that performance with excerpts from an interview with Colbie Caillat, recorded by the Academy of Achievement.

Colbie Caillat

In a breathtakingly short time, songwriter Christina Perri has earned a reputation for combining infectious, memorable melodies with uncompromising descriptions of difficult emotions. Arriving in Los Angeles on her 21st birthday with one suitcase and a guitar, she struggled to find an audience, then shot to stardom in the summer of 2010, when her song 'Jar of Hearts' was played on an episode of the television show, 'So You Think You Can Dance.' Overnight, the song hit the Top 10 on iTunes and two weeks later, Perri was playing the song live on the popular program. A few days after her first television appearance, Perri signed a recording contract with Atlantic Records. She has since performed on some of the most popular television programs in the U.S., as well as in Britain and Australia. Her songs, such as 'Arms' and 'A Thousand Years,' have been heard in numerous television programs and in the film The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn. In 2011, she released her debut album on Atlantic Records, lovestrong, and embarked on a world tour. As a youth delegate to the 2012 International Achievement Summit, Christina Perri performed several of her compositions as part of the Banquet of the Golden Plate ceremonies, held at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C. This podcast features highlights of that performance, interspersed with excerpt from an interview with Christina Perri, recorded by the Academy of Achievement.

Christina Perri

Aretha Franklin is known the world over as the Queen of Soul Music. In the 1960s, her hit recording "Respect" became an anthem of the civil rights struggle and a theme song for the dawning women's movement. He musical career began in the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin was the pastor. Young Aretha sang and played piano, and the passion of Gospel music has remained with her through her subsequent triumphs in secular blues, rock and pop. Franklin began recording when she was only 14. At 19, had won a solos contract with Columbia Records. Columbia tried to promote her as a conventionally smooth pop singer, but Aretha's talent was too volcanic to be contained by the old formulas. In 1966, she moved to Atlantic Records, where she recorded the stirring performances that made her world-famous. Her rendition of songs like "Think," "Chain of Fools, and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" set the standard by which singing in the soul idiom will always be measured. Her breakthrough album was 1967's I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You, a Top 40 smash. She continued to deliver hit albums decade after decade, including Amazing Grace (1972) and Who's Zoomin' Who? (1985) and her 1998 effort A Rose is Still a Rose. Since 1961, she has scored a total of 45 "Top 40" hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and 20 number one hits on the R&B charts. She has recorded 14 million-selling singles, the record for a female artist. Between 1967 and 1982 she had 10 number one albums on the R&B charts, another record for a female artist. She sang at the funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King, and at the inaugurations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. She has won 18 Grammy Awards and was the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Despite her international fame, she has always returned to her home town of Detroit. The legislature of Michigan has declared Aretha Franklin's voice to be one of the state's natural resources. All Americans can claim her as a national treasure. This podcast was recorded during a performance at the 2012 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C. It includes a rendition of her signature song "Respect," as well as rare interview footage recorded during the Summit.

Aretha Franklin Interview & Live Performance

One of the most distinguished musical artists of our time, the singer Jessye Norman was born in Augusta, Georgia. As a ten-year-old child, she was spellbound by a recording of the great contralto Marian Anderson. Inspired by Anderson's recordings and autobiography, she resolved to become a classical singer herself. At age 16, she won a full scholarship to study voice at Howard University. After graduate music studies at Peabody Conservatory, she went to Europe, where she was soon discovered by the Continent's leading conductors and impresarios. She made her operatic debut in Tannhauser at Berlin's Deutsche Oper. A dramatic soprano with a special affinity for the German repertoire, she has won acclaim in the operas of Wagner and Richard Strauss. Equally at home in French and Italian, she has enchanted audiences as Bizet's Carmen and as Mozart's Countess Almaviva. In addition to her concert roles. Her recitals and recordings have included American spirituals, French chansons and German lieder. From Haydn to Mahler to Schoenberg and Berg, from Satie and Poulenc to Gershwin and Bernstein, the range of Jessye Norman’s musical reach is breathtaking. She has conquered stages from Lincoln Center to Covent Garden, Carnegie Hall to the Musikverein, from La Scala to the Paris Opera and the Vienna State Opera, from Tokyo to San Francisco, Houston and Boston, from Granada to Graz and from Salzburg to Hong Kong. For the opening night of the Metropolitan Opera's centennial season, she made history by singing the roles of both Cassandra and Dido in Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz. In 1989, she was chosen to embody the spirit of liberty, equality and fraternity, singing "La Marseillaise" during the bicentennial celebration of the French Revolution at the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Jessye Norman was interviewed by the Academy of Achievement in Washington, D.C. on July 22, 2012. This podcast presents excerpts from that interview, along with selections for her performance at Washington's historic Ford's Theatre on October 18, 2011.

Jessye Norman Interview

Kiri Te Kanawa created a sensation in 1971, when she made her debut as the Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Audiences were captivated by the lyric splendor of her voice and the exquisite tenderness of her interpretation. Soon she was a leading star of the operatic stage. Today, she is one of the most famous sopranos in the world. Born in New Zealand of Maori and European ancestry, she enjoyed a career as a popular singer and recording artist while still in her teens. At 20, she moved to London for serious operatic study, and was discovered by the conductor Sir Colin Davis. Since then, she has sung in the leading opera houses of the world, and as a guest artist with the world’s major orchestras and the greatest conductors of our time. In addition to her many operatic recordings, she has recorded several albums of classic American popular songs. She was seen, as well as heard, in the 1979 film of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and by a vast international television audience in 1981 as the soloist at the royal wedding of HRH Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. In 2004, she created the Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation to provide financial support for outstanding New Zealand singers and musicians. Dame Kiri’s last operatic performance was playing the title role in Vanessa with the Los Angeles Opera in late 2004. She continues to sing in concert halls throughout the world, enchanting audiences with her vocal beauty and natural serenity. She was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1982.

Kiri Te Kanawa Interview & Live Performance Highlights (SD)

Singer-songwriter Melissa Manchester burst onto the music scene in the 1970s with the albums Home to Myself, Bright Eyes and Melissa, with its hit single Midnight Blue. Manchester's success as a writer and recording artist was preceded by thorough preparation. She published her first poems at 15, studied acting at New York's High School of the Performing Arts and songwriting at New York University, in a class taught by Paul Simon. She honed her craft playing piano and signing in the nightclubs of Greenwich Village and gained national exposure as a member of Bette Midler's back-up vocal group, the Harlettes. In addition to her association with Midler she formed a close working relationship with Midler's music director, Barry Manilow. In addition to her own recordings, she co-wrote "Whenever I Call You Friend," a major hit for Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks. Her songs have been recorded by Barbra Streisand, Alison Krauss and many others. An outstanding interpreter of songs by other writers, as well as her own, she enjoyed international hits with "Don’t Cry Out Loud" and "Through the Eyes of Love." The latter song and "I'll Never Say Goodbye" were both sung by Manchester in feature films released in 1978. Both were nominated for the year's Best Song Oscar (a unique achievement for a singer) and she performed both songs on the year's Oscar telecast. Her biggest hit to date, "You Should Hear How She Talks About You," released in 1982, brought her the Grammy Award for Best Female Vocal Performance. In 1997, she received the Governor’s Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for her contributions to the music and recording arts. Manchester has also enjoyed a career as an actress, as a regular on the television series Blosssom, in the feature film For the Boys, and onstage in the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd. She contributed the scores for the stage musicals I Sent a Letter to My Love and HATS! as well as the animated films The Great Mouse Detective and Lady and the Tramp II. Her 16th album, When I Look Down the Road, was released in 2004. This podcast was recorded during her 2011 performance at the Academy of Achievement in Washington, DC. It is interspersed with excerpts from the Academy's exclusive interview with Melissa Manchester.

Melissa Manchester Live Performance & Interview

Since she first hit the charts with "Don't Make Me Over" in 1962, the unmistakable voice and flawless musicianship of Dionne Warwick have made her an international musical legend. Her soulful blend of pop, gospel and soul styles has transcended musical and cultural boundaries. She began singing in church in her home town of East Orange, New Jersey. While attending Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, she began working as a back-up singer on recording sessions in New York City. Songwriters Burt Bacharach and Hal David recruited her to record demos of their songs, and soon she won a recording contract of her own. The team of singer Warwick with writers Bacharach and David recorded 30 hit singles, and nearly 20 best-selling albums in the first ten years of their collaboration. Hits like "Anyone Who Had A Heart," and "Walk On By" spread Warwick's fame all over the word. She received her first Grammy Award in 1968 for Bacharach and David's "Do You Know The Way to San Jose?" In 1970, she received her second Grammy for the best-selling album I'll Never Fall In Love Again, featuring the Bacharach-David song of the same name. In the 1908s, Warwick led the music industry's fight against AIDS. Her chart-topping single "That's What Friends Are For," recorded with her friends Elton John and Gladys Knight, raised millions of dollars for AIDS research. In 2010 she published her memoir, My Life as I See It. This podcast was recorded during her 2011 appearance at the Academy of Achievement in Washington, D.C. The performance is interspersed with excerpts from the Academy's exclusive interview with Dionne Warwick.

Dionne Warwick Live Performance & Interview

Amy Grant made her recording debut while still in her teens and soon released the first record of contemporary Christian music to sell over a million copies. She later achieved unprecedented crossover success with her albums "Lead Me On" and "Heart in Motion." With six Grammy awards and over 30 million records sold worldwide, she is the best-selling Christian music artist of all time. Grant is married to fellow musician and Academy member Vince Gill.

Amy Grant Live Performance

Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album -- recorded when she was still in high school -- sold more than three million copies. A prodigiously talented singer and songwriter, she wrote every song on the album, including the year’s number one country single, "Our Song." Her dedication to music began in childhood. By age ten she was performing at karaoke contests, festivals and county fairs around her hometown of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. At age 12, she persuaded her parents to move to Nashville so she could pursue her singing career. In only two years she had signed a publishing contract with Sony, making her the youngest professional songwriter in the industry. Her catalogue already includes hundreds of original songs, from plaintive ballads to irresistibly catchy anthems that capture the heartbreaks and trials of adolescence with startling honesty. A second album, Fearless, topped the Billboard 200 for 11 consecutive weeks, making her the best-selling musical artist of the year. Her 2010 effort Speak Now sold more than three million records within the first weeks of its release. Tickets for her next appearances in America’s largest concert venues sold out within minutes and tour dates were added in 19 countries around the world. By the end of the year, she had sold more than 6 million albums worldwide. Taylor Swift attended the International Achievement Summit as a student delegate in 2008. This podcast is an excerpt from her performance there.

Taylor Swift Live Performance

Naomi Judd won renown as half of the mother-daughter singing team, The Judds, the most popular female singing duo in country music history. But her rise in the world was not an easy one. Before graduating from high school, the unmarried Naomi was already pregnant with the first of her two daughters. When her first marriage ended in divorce, she found herself struggling to support two daughters on her own. A decade of struggle followed, but Naomi and her daughter Wynonna developed their singing talents, and a live audition won them a recording contract before the duo had ever performed in front of a paying audience. After eight years of phenomenal success on the country music scene, Naomi Judd retired from performing to battle a life-threatening illness. Doctors gave her only three years to live, but her faith and determination pulled her through to complete recovery. Today, Naomi Judd is in demand as a lecturer and hosts her own Sunday morning television show on the Hallmark Channel. Her incandescent spirit is an inspiration to all who hear her. In this podcast, recorded at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in 2008, Naomi gives a moving account of her early struggles as a teenage single mother, fighting her way from welfare to ultimate success in the music industry.

Naomi Judd

In her greatest roles, Sally Field has personified the strong-willed, independent woman of the American heartland, earning Oscars for her performances as a courageous union organizer in Norma Rae and as a Depression-era widow struggling to keep the family farm in Places in the Heart. Although she has earned lasting fame as a serious actress, she first won the hearts of the American public in the 1960s as the teenage star of situation comedies. At the time, many dismissed her as a cute kid whose career would not extend to serious roles, but Sally Field was committed to perfecting her craft, and established herself as a dramatic actress overnight with her Emmy Award-winning portrayal of a woman with multiple-personality disorder in the 1976 television movie Sybil. Highlights of her feature film career include memorable performances in Smokey and the Bandit, Absence of Malice, Steel Magnolias and Forrest Gump. She has enjoyed continued success on television, winning Emmy Awards for her regular roles on ER and Brothers and Sisters. As she continues to dedicate her time and her talent to film, television and live theater, the breadth and depth of her artistry grow with every role she undertakes. In this podcast, recorded at the 2008 International Achievement Summit in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Sally Field speaks of her long struggle to establish herself as a serious dramatic actress after winning early fame in television comedies, and extols the values of honesty and self-knowledge the discipline of acting has brought to her life.

Sally Field

Today, television audiences are used to seeing Hilary Swank resplendently gowned, gliding over a red carpet at glittering Hollywood soirees, but her early years were anything but glamorous. She spent much of her childhood living in a trailer park near Lake Samish in Bellingham, Washington. Hilary Swank began acting professionally in her teens, appearing in television shows such as Growing Pains. Movie audiences got their first look at Hilary Swank in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Next Karate Kid. She was dropped from her regular role on Beverly Hills 90210, a potential career disaster that proved to be a blessing in disguise. She was soon cast as the tragic Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry. Her devastating performance brought her the Oscar for Best Actress. The role had required a challenging physical transformation, but that was nothing compared to the grueling training regimen she undertook to convincingly portray a professional boxer onscreen. She received a second Best Actress Oscar for her physically powerful and emotionally wrenching portrayal of the doomed Maggie Fitzgerald in Million Dollar Baby. In this podcast, recorded at the 2007 International Achievement Summit in Washington, D.C., she discusses her grueling physical preparation for these demanding roles. Nothing worthwhile can be accomplished without complete dedication, she affirmed, and no award or other form of public recognition can take the place of the satisfaction that comes from continually meeting fresh challenges.

Hilary Swank

In recognition of Women's History Month, the Academy of Achievement presents a selection of extraordinary women who have defied expectations, broken boundaries, and made history around the world. They include courageous political leaders and human rights activists, recipients of the Nobel Prize for Literature and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, award-winning actresses, musicians, screenwriters and film directors, as well as outstanding athletes, educators, journalists, explorers, physicians, philanthropists, broadcasters and entrepreneurs. Their words and their example are an inspiration to us all. Note: Additional Women in Entertainment tracks are available in Audio only and a subset are available in HD video. Select Audio or HD from the menu on the left to visit the other formats.

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Women in Entertainment

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