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Helen Maxine Lamond Reddy (born 25 October 1941) is an Australian singer, actress, and activist. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed 15 singles in the Top 40 of the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Six made the Top 10 and three reached No. 1, including her signature hit "I Am Woman".〔(【引用サイトリンク】title='I am Woman' on australianscreen online )〕 She is often referred to as the "Queen of '70s Pop." 〔http://www.seeitlive.com.au/Whats_On/Morning_Melodies_%E2%80%93The_Helen_Reddy_Show〕 Reddy placed 25 songs on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart; 15 made the Top 10 and eight reached No. 1, six consecutively. In 1974, at the inaugural American Music Awards, she became the first artist to win the award for Favorite Pop/Rock Female Artist. She was the first Australian to have three No. 1 hits in the same year. In television, she was the first Australian to host her own one-hour weekly primetime variety show on an American network, along with several specials that were seen in more than 40 countries.〔http://www.helenreddy.com/flash.html (biography)〕 Reddy retired from live performance in 2002, returned to university in Australia and earned her degree, and practiced as a clinical hypnotherapist and motivational speaker. In 2011, after singing "Breezin' Along With the Breeze" with her sister, Toni Lamond, for Toni's birthday, she decided to return to live performing.〔 Her song "I Am Woman" played a large role in popular culture and became an anthem for second-wave feminism. She came to be known as a "feminist poster girl" or a "feminist icon."〔Arrow. Michelle. 2007. "It Has Become My Personal Anthem": "I Am Woman", Popular Culture and 1970s Feminism. Australian Feminist Studies 22: 213–230.〕 In 2011, ''Billboard'' named her the No. 28 adult contemporary artist of all time (No. 9 woman). ==Early years== Helen Reddy was born into a well-known Australian show business family in Melbourne, where she attended Tintern Girls Grammar School. Her mother, Stella Campbell (''née'' Lamond), was an actress, and her father, Maxwell David "Max" Reddy, was a writer, producer, and actor. Her half-sister, Toni Lamond, and her nephew, Tony Sheldon, are actor-singers. She has Irish, Scottish and English ancestry. Her great grandfather, Scotsman Thomas Lamond, was a one-time mayor of Waterloo, New South Wales, whose patron was Hercules Robinson, 1st Baron Rosmead. Her maternal grandmother, Stella Lamond (''née'' Pearl), sang and danced in small parts at the Majestic Theatre in Sydney. Reddy was born during World War II, six weeks before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Her father was a sergeant in the Australian Army with a unit of entertainers; he served alongside one of his actor friends, Peter Finch. They were serving together in New Guinea at the time of Helen's birth. Her father returned to service during the Korean War. At age 4, she joined her parents on the Australian vaudeville circuit, singing and dancing; she recalled: "It was instilled in me: ''You will be a star''. So between the ages of 12 and 17, I got rebellious and decided this was not for me. I was going to be a housewife and mother."〔(Helen Reddy Sings Out for Women's Lib – but Jeffrey Calls the Tune : People.com )〕 Reddy's teenage rebellion in favour of domesticity manifested as marriage to Kenneth Claude Weate, a considerably older musician and family friend; divorce ensued and, to support herself as a single mother to daughter Traci, she resumed her performing career, concentrating on singing, since health problems precluded dancing (she had a kidney removed at 17). She sang on radio and television, eventually winning a talent contest on the Australian pop music TV show ''Bandstand'', the prize ostensibly being a trip to New York City to cut a single for Mercury Records. After arriving in New York in 1966, she was informed by Mercury that her prize was only the chance to ''audition'' for the label, and that Mercury considered the ''Bandstand'' footage to constitute her audition, which was deemed unsuccessful. Despite possessing only $200 and a return ticket to Australia, she elected to remain in the United States with 3-year-old Traci and pursue a singing career. Reddy recalled her 1966 appearance at the Three Rivers Inn in Syracuse, New York – "there were like twelve people in the audience"〔(Interview With Helen Reddy )〕 – as typical of her early U.S. performing career. Her lack of a work permit made it difficult to obtain any singing jobs in the U.S., and she was forced to make several trips to Canada which did not require work permits for citizens of Commonwealth countries like Australia. In the spring of 1968, Martin St. James – a hypnotist/entertainer and fellow Australian she had met in New York City – threw Reddy a party with an admission price of $5 to enable Reddy – then down to her last $12 – to pay her rent. It was on this occasion that Reddy met her future manager and husband Jeff Wald, a 22-year-old secretary at the William Morris Agency who crashed the party:〔(Jeff Wald )〕 Reddy told ''People'' in 1975, "() didn't pay the five dollars, but it was love at first sight."〔 Wald recalled that he and Reddy married three days after meeting and, along with daughter Traci, the couple took up residence at the Hotel Albert in Greenwich Village.〔 Reddy later stated that she married Wald "out of desperation over her right to work and live in the United States."〔(Helen Reddy )〕 According to ''New York Magazine'', Wald was fired from William Morris soon after having met Reddy, and "Helen supported them for six months doing $35-a-night hospital and charity benefits. They were so broke that they snuck out of a hotel room carrying their clothes in paper bags." Reddy recalled: "When we did eat, it was spaghetti, and we spent what little money we had on cockroach spray."〔 They left New York City for Chicago and Wald landed a job as talent coordinator at Mister Kelly's. While in Chicago, Reddy gained a reputation singing in local lounges – including Mister Kelly's – and, in the spring of 1968, she landed a deal with Fontana Records, a division of major label Chicago-based Mercury Records. Her first single, "One Way Ticket", on Fontana was not an American hit, but it did give Reddy her first ever appearance on any chart as it peaked at No. 83 in her native Australia. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Helen Reddy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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