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Pink Biography |
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Real Name: Alecia Moore
Birthday: September 8, 1979
AGE: 21
Star Sign: Virgo
Parents: James and Judy
Siblings: Jason (22) and a stepsister
Birthplace: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Hometown: Philadelphia, PA (USA)
Real Hair Color: Blond/Dirty Blond
Height: 5'3"
Eye Color: Blue
Tatoos:
On Wrist (italic writing that says "What Comes Around Goes Around")
On Shoulder Blade (a guardian angel)
On Ankle (chinese/japanese symbol)
Favorite Color: Green and Pink
Favorite Song On Her CD: Split Personality
Favorite Food: Lucky charms
Favorite Movie: Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory
Favorite TV Show: Apollo
Origin of her Nick Name: turns bright pink when embarrassed
Former Memeber of: Basic Instinct and Choice
Musical Influences:
Madonna
Whitney Houston
Mary J. Blige
Janet Jackson
Billy Joel
Her dad
Little Known Facts:
Collects frogs (not living)
Used to be a gymnast
More Info:
Pink, at only 19, is a young woman with the experience of many lifetimes, I’m a very extreme person. I went through a lot of phases growing up, and for every one, I was extreme, confides Pink, the latest R&B/pop artist to emerge from the hugely successful, LaFace Records camp. From skateboarder to hip-hopper to rave child to lead singer of a rock band I did it all, and all at the same time.
Looking at Pink, it’s easy to believe that she skillfully mastered each of her extremes. With a shock of pink hair, sharply focused blue eyes hinting of a rebellious streak and an abundance of self-confidence, but she is also a bewildered girl who is just now finding her place on this planet, a strong person with a million lessons to teach and even more to learn. She’s seen a lot, done a lot, and she now stands on the fault line between the angst of adolescence and the knowledge of adulthood.
And thus, Pink is filled with self-discovery, having written over half of the dozen songs on her self-titled album herself Pink offers insight into her tumultuous world where life is not always flowers and chocolate.
I decided at 15 that I didn’t want to be one of those artists that gets up and sings love songs they don’t mean, Pink explains of the songs that appear on her debut album. I decided that I was going to be me to the fullest extent, that my songs were going to reflect relationships I’ve had, things I’ve been through, and even the stuff I’m embarrassed about.
My dad always played guitar and taught me songs by Dylan and McLean, Pink recalls. But his love of music left an indelible mark on Pink. Ever since I can remember, I think before I could talk, I sang she continues. I just ran around the house making up my own fantasy world.
By the time she was barely a teen, Pink had navigated the precarious waters of the Philly club scene. Any time not spent testing authority at high school was spent tearing up the dance floor, and eventually, the stage.
I met this guy named Skratch, who was the best dancer in Philly, she says of her thirteenth year. I started dancing with him and eventually I was singing hooks in the background for his rap group, Schools of Thought. I wrote some of my own stuff, about the way it was growing up in Philly. We would just get up on the stage at clubs, and hang out in studios hoping to get some songs down on tape. At the time, making music was medicine.
Calling upon Mary, Janis Joplin, the Supremes, Shirley Murdock, Donna Hathaway and Madonna for inspiration, Pink laid down her first self-written song at fourteen. But she really got her groove on not in the studio, but in clubs. I went regularly on Friday nights to Club Fever, where the DJ gave me a guest spotlight, Pink laughs. My little five minutes on Friday night was all I wanted out of life. I loved the thrill of being on stage. It was the only place that I felt like, okay, I’m cool now. Being heckled only boosted Pink’s ambitions.
One late Friday night, a rep from MCA came round the club, looking for a singer to fill out her new R&B group. She liked Pink’s sound, and asked her to audition for a group called Basic Instinct. She got the gig practically on the spot, but the group fizzled quickly. I didn’t fit in, quips Pink. But I didn’t care. You have to laugh at stuff like that. And anyway, I don’t see myself as belonging to any group.
Nonetheless, another group instantly snapped up Pink as one of three female leads. This one, named Choice, made a ten-cent demo and was immediately signed to LaFace. The group didn’t last
one wanted to sing Broadway tunes, the other wanted to make alternative records and Pink wanted to do it all but Pink’s place in the LaFace stable was solidified. In fact, it was during studio time with Choice in Atlanta that Pink rediscovered her writing abilities and hooked up Darryl Simmons. He asked me to write the bridge for ‘Just to be Loving You’ I thought that was so cool, because no one had even asked me if I wrote. So I just closed my eyes and out it came. I wrote that, and it was the beginning of my career.
It was also the emergence of Pink’s powerful soprano, which is capable of taking sharp dives and hairpin turns through multiple octaves. I had gotten really good at emulating other people’s sounds, from singing at the clubs, she says. But the day we recorded ‘Just to Be Loving You’ for Choice in the studio, that song was so beautiful, I just sang. I didn’t care what I sounded like. It just came out and shocked me.
Pink began writing songs to display her vocal ability and love of the pop side of R&B at a feverish pace. When she approached L.A. Reid with her songs, he was floored. I kept playing him my songs and going, What about this one? What about these? she remembers. And he was like, yeah, I like that one, yeah that’s a single. He looked at me as a self-contained unit, which he thought was interesting. It’s always been really cool with him. Reid signed Pink up as a solo artist and hooked her up with various writing partners from She’ kspeare to, Babyface and 112.
There U Go the debut single, which displays the versatility of her voice and the wickedness of her plume, will undoubtedly place Pink on the map.
If this is just the surface, we can’t wait to see what mysteries lurk below.
Just barely 21 years old, Pink has already being hailed by some as the next Madonna. While that assessment is premature, to say the least, there's no question that the fuchsia-haired chanteuse has made inroads into her quest to "take over the whole world and paint it pink." Confident, brash, and prone to speak her mind, the up-and-coming star has often told the press that one of her primary goals is to "break up stereotypes." And as a white female singer in a crowded R&B pop field, she's already smashed conventional thought in one major arena.
Born Sept. 8, 1979, the artist-later-to-be-known-as-Pink grew up in Doylestown, Pa., a small town just outside Philadelphia. Originally christened Alecia Moore, Pink was raised in a musical household in which her insurance-salesman father played guitar and taught her Bob Dylan songs, and her mother fashioned herself a singer. At age 7, Pink received her monosyllabic moniker when a boy she had a crush on pulled down her pants in front of some children at summer camp. "Look!" shouted one of the kids. "She's turning all pink!" From that point forward, the nickname stuck.
Even in first grade, Pink knew she wanted to be a singer, and indeed, with the exception of gymnastics (at which she excelled), music was the focus of her life outside school. At age 13, she hooked up with a mentor named Skratch (purportedly the best dancer in Philly) and began singing backup for his rap group, Schools of Thought. That stint was short-lived, but Pink continued honing her skills at Philadelphia's now-defunct Club Fever, where the house DJ allowed her to take the stage briefly each Friday night. After one such gig, a representative from MCA Records approached Pink and asked her to join a vocal group called Basic Instinct. Pink joined the fledgling outfit, but after a brief spell, the other two members of the group kicked her out. ("They hated me," Pink has since said.)
Undaunted, Pink subsequently joined a more promising R&B unit called Choice, as one of three female lead singers. Without management representation, the group mailed rough demo tapes to various record labels, and five of the companies expressed interest. In the end, Choice decided to sign with LaFace Records, primarily because the group hoped to work with hotshot producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. Wasting no time, the label moved Choice and Pink (who, by this time, had dropped out of high school) to its headquarters in Atlanta and ensconced the trio in a large wooded house, where they underwent physical and vocal training. In December of 1997, a thoroughly groomed Choice performed, in an audition of sorts, for label mogul L.A. Reid at LaFace's annual Christmas party.
Reid wasn't much impressed with Choice, but he was very much taken with Pink. After purportedly being told that, in order to remain with the label, she had to go solo, Pink reluctantly broke away from the other members of the group. By this time, Pink was both rediscovering her writing talents (she'd recorded an original song, "Don't Stop," at age 14) and honing her voice into a powerful soprano. Triggered by her composition of the bridge for the Daryl Simmons-penned "Just to Be Loving You," she started composing at a frenetic pace. Impressed even further, Reid hooked Pink up with a bevy of high-profile writing partners, including She'kspeare, 112, and the aforementioned Babyface. Within months, Pink had not only written more than half the songs that would comprise her debut CD, she had also signed a lucrative publishing deal with EMI.
With Reid and Edmonds credited as executive producers, Pink's full-length debut, Can't Take Me Home, was released in April of 2000. Paving the way for the CD's appearance was "There You Go," a Top 10 single which had already sold half a million copies by the time Can't Take Me Home hit record stores. Though reviews tended to be lukewarm (Rolling Stone snidely remarked that Pink "makes a pretty good Monica, but we already have one of those"), fans were taken with the feisty spirit that defined many of Pink's songs. Indeed, in its June issue, Teen People named Pink one of the "25 Hottest Stars Under 25," and by September, Can't Take Me Home had been certified platinum.
Meanwhile, having spent much of 2000 on tour in both the United States and abroad (including stints with Sisqo and 'N Sync), Pink is continuing to enjoy attention on a variety of fronts. Recently, she served as co-host (along with Shemar Moore and Sisqo) at the sixth annual Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards show, where she performed "There You Go." Moreover, future plans call for Pink to join Mandy Moore and BBMak in a private concert for the winners of New York City's "School Spirit 2000" contest, and Billboard has nominated the video for "There You Go" as a candidate for "Best New Artist Clip of the Year" in the Pop category. And finally, the most recent single from Can't Take Me Home, "Most Girls," is currently sitting high on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart. For now, everything's rosy in the world of Pink.
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