Baddest Women in Music
6 of the hottest acts in the business
St. Vincent
After years of being just another member of various bands, Oklahoma native Annie Clark transformed into the stage persona known as St. Vincent in 2006. That’s when she started garnering rave reviews and a rabid fan base for her virtuoso guitar thrashing, her otherworldly vocals and her manic stage performances. “Part of what happens onstage is a physical exorcism,” she’s said. “I have a lot of energy, and I have to move.”
Rita Ora
With the sound of a pop-star, the soul of and R&B crooner, and the looks of a pin-up model, Rita Ora has strutted onto the music scene like a mash-up of Madonna, Rihanna and Rita Hayworth (the actress she was named after).
Miley Cyrus
Although she’s gone a bit under the radar in 2016, Cyrus’s shocking evolution from Disney Channel star to hardcore provocateur known for risqué performances, flesh-baring costumes and a general let-it-all-hang-out lifestyle has already given fans enough lascivious memories to last a lifetime.
5th Harmony
Despite an early exit from The X Factor USA in 2012, the pop quintet has gone on to achieve triple-platinum status on the charts. The group’s latest single, “Work From Home,” is the first girl group song to break into the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in nearly a decade.
The Internet’s Syd Tha Kyd
Much like her group’s namesake, singer/producer/DJ Syd tha Kyd is impressively eclectic. With an airy femme voice mixed with a butch look, Syd heads up a band that is breaking new ground. In fact, the artist chalked up a first when she essentially came out via the music video for the band’s song “Cocaine.” Said Syd, ”I decided to do it because I wish I had someone like that [an openly gay female artist] while I was coming up. People write on my Tumblr just thanking me for making the video, saying that I really inspire them, and they want to be like me…So I figure, fuck it. Everyday people aren’t given this opportunity and I realize that.”
Missy Elliot
After being sidelined for years with Graves’ disease, a reinvigorated Missy Elliot, popped up at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2015 with a hard dancing, hard rapping performance that made us all, in Elliot’s words, “need a glass of wah-ta!” Since then’s she’s been blazing up the charts with songs like “WTF (Where They From)” and “Pep Rally.”
