P!nk (aka Pink)

Birth Name: Alecia Beth Moore
Birthplace: Doylestown, PA
Birthdate: September 8, 1979
Active: 2000-Present

Although she was named Alecia Beth Moore by her parents, the world would come to know her as a one-name phenomenon: Pink. At one time, Pink aspired to be an Olympic gymnast and trained competitively for nearly a decade. Her gymnast training would become a signature of her live performances. In her early teens, she shifted her attention to music and was singing in the night clubs of neighboring Philadelphia by the time she was 14. Her ambition paid off and two short years later, she was signed to Atlanta-based label LaFace as part of the group Choice. The group released one record in 1996 but failed to garner the traction necessary to move forward and in 1998, the group disbanded. One year later, LaFace Records took Alecia Beth Moore from Choice and signed her as renowned solo artist, P!nk.

P!nk’s debut album, Can’t Take Me Home, was released in 2000 into a Millennial melting pot of young, female pop-artists, including Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. One year later, P!nk would release Missundaztood and eschew the R&B influenced pop sound of her earlier releases for an edgier pop-rock sound which remains a hallmark of her sound. “Don’t Let Me Get Me”, the second single for Missundaztood, name-checked one of LaFace Records founders in the line, “LA told me you’ll be a pop star/All you have to do/Is change everything you are” and announced that the artists would not be subject to conform to someone else’s expectations. The influence of a pop music anti-hero can be seen in a younger generation of female pop singers from Katy Perry to Billie Eilish.

While P!nk did not achieve the same level of immediate success as many of her contemporaries, she has quietly become one of the most consistent and prolific artists in contemporary pop music. From 2000 to 2019, the singer has released a single each year, except for one. The steady output of music propelled her to new heights of success, with her 2017-2019 Beautiful Trauma tour becoming one of the top-ten highest-grossing tours in the history of Billboard magazine.