Meredith Ann Brooks (born June 12, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for her 1997 hit song "

Bitch Bitch may refer to: * A female dog or other canine * Bitch (slang), a vulgar slur for a human female Bitch or bitches may also refer to: Arts and media Film and television * ''The Bitch'' (film), a 1979 film starring Joan Collins * ''Bitch ...

", for which she was nominated for a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

Career

Brooks started her music career in 1976 as a member of an all-female band called Sapphire, based in Eugene, Oregon, touring and recording with CMS Records in the Pacific Northwest. Her bandmates were Janis Gaines, Cynthia Larsen, Patricia French and Pam Johnson. Seeking greater success, Brooks pushed the band to move to Seattle without Gaines on keyboards, reducing Sapphire to a foursome. In Seattle, Sapphire recorded at Kaye-Smith Studios at the same time as

Heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ in most animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels of the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the body, while carrying metabolic waste such as ca ...

. When this version of the band split in 1982, Brooks moved to Los Angeles to develop a solo career, releasing an album titled ''Meredith Brooks'' in 1986, which saw limited success in Mexico. In 1987, she joined

Charlotte Caffey Charlotte Irene Caffey (born October 21, 1953) is an American guitarist, best known for her work in the rock band the Go-Go's in the 1980s, including writing " We Got the Beat". Career Caffey began her musical career playing bass guitar in th ...

and

Gia Ciambotti Gia Ciambotti (born September 13, 1962 in Hollywood, California) is an American singer. She first came to prominence in the late 1980s as a member of the band The Graces, with Charlotte Caffey and Meredith Brooks. The group released the album ''P ...

to form the trio the Graces, releasing the single " Lay Down Your Arms" which rose to number 56 on ''Billboard''s charts. The Graces subsequently released an album, ''Perfect View'', and three more singles, but these did not chart, and the Graces were dropped from the A&M label in 1991. In 1995, Brooks landed a solo contract with

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of not ...

. After two years, her first single, "

", was released, and she was nominated twice for the 1998

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

, for

Best Female Rock Vocal Performance The Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to female recording artists for works (songs or albums) conta ...

and Best Rock Song. The single went Platinum in Australia. Her album '' Blurring the Edges'' achieved Platinum sales, peaking at 22 on the ''Billboard'' 200 and 5 on the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

. The album was produced by David Ricketts, formerly of David and David, and he also played keyboards (among other instruments) on the album. Brooks toured in the US and Europe in 1997 and 1998 to support the album, and also participated in the

Lilith Fair Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 ...

music festival tour in both of those years. On March 29, 1998, in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

, she opened for

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically dr ...

. During her set the crowd demanded the Stones and became violent, throwing objects including rocks and tampons at the stage and bruising her eye. She appeared again the next day wearing an Argentine football shirt, but the crowd again threw things at her, so after singing "Bitch" she yelled to the crowd, threw the shirt on the ground and walked off. In 1999, Brooks recorded her third album, ''

Deconstruction The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essen ...

.'' The track "Sin City" was recorded for the movie '' Snake Eyes.'' In 2002, Brooks signed with independent label Gold Circle Records. She worked on her fourth album, ''

Bad Bad One ''Bad Bad One'' is the fourth studio album by American singer-songwriter Meredith Brooks. It was released on May 21, 2002, by Gold Circle Records. Following the commercial disappointment of her previous album, ''Deconstruction'' (1999), Brooks wa ...

''. The label folded immediately after releasing the album. In 2002, she produced

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series '' Kids I ...

's album '' BareNaked'' and appeared on VH1 '' Divas Las Vegas'' as a guest guitar soloist with

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

and

Anastacia Anastacia Lyn Newkirk ( ; born September 17, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter and former dancer. Her first two albums '' Not That Kind'' (2000) and '' Freak of Nature'' (2001) were released in quick succession to major success. Spurred o ...

. Brooks signed a record deal with SLG Records and re-issued ''

'' as '' Shine'' in 2004. The track "Shine" was used as the theme music for ''

Dr. Phil Phillip Calvin McGraw (born September 1, 1950), better known as Dr. Phil, is an American television personality and author best known for hosting the talk show '' Dr. Phil''. He holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased rene ...

'' from 2004 to 2008. The instrumental remix appears as the last track on the album. In 2007, Brooks completed a children's album titled '' If I Could Be...'' She also began developing Portland-area

Sony Music Entertainment Sony Music Entertainment (SME), also known as simply Sony Music, is an American multinational music company. Being owned by the parent conglomerate Sony Group Corporation, it is part of the Sony Music Group, which is owned by Sony Entertainmen ...

artist Becca. Brooks is a member of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism. In 2018, the song " I'm a Mess" was a worldwide chart hit for

Bebe Rexha Bleta Rexha (; born August 30, 1989), known professionally as Bebe Rexha ( ), is an American pop singer and songwriter. After signing with Warner Records in 2013, Rexha received songwriting credits on Eminem's single " The Monster" (which lat ...

. While an original song, it does borrow some of its melody from Brooks' earlier hit "Bitch". As a result, Meredith Brooks is listed as a co-writer of the song.

Awards and nominations

{, class=wikitable , - ! Year !! Awards !! Work !! Category !! Result , - , rowspan="6" , 1997 , Billboard Music Video Awards , rowspan="3" , "

" , Best New Artist Clip (Pop/Rock) , , - , rowspan="2" ,

MTV VMA The MTV Video Music Awards (commonly abbreviated as the VMAs) is an award show presented by the cable channel MTV to honour the best in the music video medium. Originally conceived as an alternative to the Grammy Awards (in the video category ...

, Best New Artist , , - , Best Female Video , , - , MTV EMA , rowspan="7" , Herself , Best New Act , , - ,

Billboard Music Awards The ''Billboard'' Music Awards are honors given out annually by ''Billboard'', a publication covering the music business and a music popularity chart. The ''Billboard'' Music Awards show has been held annually since 1990, with the exception of t ...

, Top Hot 100 Artist - Female , , - , Žebřík Music Awards , Best International Female , , - , rowspan="7" , 1998 ,

Pollstar ''Pollstar'' is a trade publication for the concert and live music industry. The publication was purchased by Oak View Group, a venue consultancy founded by Tim Leiweke and Irving Azoff, in July 2017. History and profile Founded in 1981 in Fr ...

Concert Industry Awards , Best New Artist Tour , , - ,

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

, Best International Female , , - , ECHO Awards , Best International Newcomer , , - ,

Blockbuster Entertainment Awards The Blockbuster Entertainment Awards was a film awards ceremony, founded by Blockbuster Entertainment, Inc., that ran from 1995 until 2001. They were produced each year by Ken Ehrlich. Formation and first awards The awards were first held on J ...

, Favorite Female - New Artist , , - , rowspan="2" ,

, rowspan="3" , "

" , Best Rock Song , , - , Best Female Rock Vocal Performance , , - , APRA Awards , Most Performed Foreign Work ,

Discography

Albums

{, class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center" , - ! rowspan="2", Title ! rowspan="2", Year ! colspan="8", Chart positions , - ! width="35", US
! width="35", AUS
Peaks in Australia: * All except noted: * "What Would Happen": ! width="35", AUT
! width="35", GER
! width="35", NLD
! width="35", NZ
! width="35", SWI
! width="35", UK
, - ! scope="row", '' Blurring the Edges'' , rowspan="2", 1997 , 22 , , 30 , , 5 , , 7 , , 5 , , 7 , , 6 , , 5 , - ! scope="row", '' See It Through My Eyes'' , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ! scope="row", ''

'' , 1999 , — , , — , , 42 , , 95 , , — , , — , , 30 , , — , - ! scope="row", ''

'' , 2002 , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , - ! scope="row", '' If I Could Be...'' , 2007 , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , — , , —

Extended plays

* Meredith Brooks: Celebrating Pride (2022)

Singles

{, class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" , - ! rowspan="2", Title ! rowspan="2", Year ! colspan="7", Chart positions ! rowspan="2", Album , - ! width="35", US
! width="35", AUS
! width="35", GER
! width="35",

IRE Ire or IRE may refer to: Ire * Extreme anger; intense fury * Irē, the Livonian name for Mazirbe, Latvia * A town in Oye, Nigeria * ''Ire'' (album), a 2015 album by the Australian metalcore band Parkway Drive * Ire (Iliad), a town mentioned in ...

! width="35", NLD
! width="35", NZ
! width="35", UK
, - ! scope="row", "

" , rowspan="2", 1997 , , , , , , , , rowspan="4", ''Blurring the Edges'' , - ! scope="row", "I Need" , , , , , , , , - ! scope="row", "What Would Happen" , rowspan="2", 1998 , , , , , , , , - ! scope="row", "Stop" , , , , , , , , - ! scope="row", "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" , rowspan="2", 1999 , , , , , , , , rowspan="2", ''Deconstruction'' , - ! scope="row", "Shout" , , , , , , , , - ! scope="row", "Shine" , rowspan="3", 2004 , , , , , , , , rowspan="3", ''Bad Bad One'' , - ! scope="row", "You Don't Know Me" , , , , , , , , - ! scope="row", "Where Lovers Meet" , , , , , , ,

References

External links

*
Kissing Booth
personal blog

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Meredith 1958 births Living people American women singer-songwriters APRA Award winners Singer-songwriters from Oregon Musicians from Corvallis, Oregon People from Oregon City, Oregon Corvallis High School (Oregon) alumni Guitarists from Oregon 20th-century American women guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American women singers The Graces (band) members 21st-century American women guitarists 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American women singers 20th-century American singers 21st-century American singers