Celebrating Famous Female Artists

With the CDS show only a few weeks away, let’s look at some fun facts about some

of the singers behind this year’s theme; Famous Female Artists.

Let’s take a step back to the early 1980’s, when Cindy Lauper released her first

album, “She’s So Unusual”, from which she had four top five hits, making her the first

female artist to achieve such success. The video “Girls Just Want To Have Fun”, has

been recognised as one of the greatest music videos of that era. Success continued

with her second album, “True Colours” and into the 2000’s with many #1 hits. Cindy

has won many music awards, receiving the Tony Award in 2013 for composing Best

Original Score for the Broadway hit musical, “Kinky Boots”, making her the first

woman to win that category by herself. She was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of

Fame and has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

Gwen Stefani was the lead singer of the 1990’s band, “No Doubt”, before going onto

a solo career in 2004. Her first album was inspired by pop music of the 80’s and was

a huge success with “Hollaback Girl” becoming the first US download song to sell

one million copies. She went on to release four more albums and several singles,

some with her husband, country singer Blake Shelton. Outside of music, Gwen has a

clothing line L.A.M.B. and she also has a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.

The Spice Girls, with their “girl power” mantra, are the best-selling girl group of all

time, and were created in 1994 to compete with the boy bands, who had been

dominating pop music. Their debut single, “Wannabe”, reached #1 on the charts in

37 countries, and their album “Spice”, is the best-selling album by a female group in

history. They co-wrote all of their songs, saying that Madonna was a big influence

and because they did not want any one of them to be considered a lead singer, each

song was divided up and they shared the vocals.

Florence and the Machine are a British band, formed in 2007. Prior to this, Florence

Welch and one of the band members, Isabella Summers, performed together under

the names Florence Robot and Isabella Machine, and this is how she came up with

the idea for her band name. Their music, most of which is written by Florence, is

often described as alternative, dramatic, with strong soul/pop/rock and gothic

influences.

Did you know that Tate McRae was a dancer before she broke into the music

industry? She won Best Female Dancer in three categories in The Dance Awards in

New York, the first dancer in the competition’s history to do this. Her YouTube

channel mainly showed dance videos until 2017, when she started showcasing and

releasing independent songs that she wrote and recorded in her bedroom. She was

named one of the top ten biggest breakthrough artists of 2020, and became a brand

ambassador for Maybelline. In 2025 her song “Just Keep Watching”, was made in

collaboration with “F1 The Movie” and her performance in the video of that song

acknowledges the elements of the real-world of Formula 1.

In September this year, CDS welcomed, from across the ditch, independent Kiwi

artist, Lottie. She absolutely loved meeting the students, teaching a dance workshop

and performing live for us. Since then, Lottie has released another single, “Not Right

Now”, which made the top spot on Spotify and she made the cover of Spotify Fresh

Finds AU and NZ editorial playlist.

Huntr/x is a K-pop girl group from the movie KPop Demon Hunters, who use their

music to fight demons and protect human souls. Set in Korean Culture, the film’s plot

explores the power of community and friendship in overcoming cultural pressures.

The name of the group in a blend of “Hunter” and the Latin suffix “x”, which can

mean “Female Warrior.” With over 325 million views, the movie has become the

most-watched original title in Netflix history.

Olivia Rodrigo got into singing and acting when she was five, appearing in

commercials, before starring in the Disney Channel Bizaardvark and High School

Musical series. She released her first single in 2021, “Drivers License”, reaching #1

on the US Billboard 100. This was the beginning of a flow of number one singles and

albums, which resulted in numerous Grammy, MTV and Billboard Music awards.

She has been recognised for her songwriting and in 2022, she was named

Billboard’s Woman of the Year.

Now, whilst Taytay might not have a song in this year’s CDS show, she will be a part

of it in sorts, as she has been a musical inspiration to Olivia Rodrigo, who once

claimed that she was Taylor’s biggest fan.