(person) by avalyn Wed May 01 2002 at 9:08:43

The wildly popular R&B/pop singer Alecia Moore (better known to the television-watching world as Pink (or P!nk depending on the source)) was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania on September 8, 1979, to James and Judy Moore. Her parents divorced when she was still a toddler, and they alternated custody of young Alecia and her older brother Jason. The family is Irish-American/Jewish.

Pink is perhaps better described as an antithesis to her current audience and her music press-dictated contemporaries; a badass pseudopunk rocker that would just as soon record a cover of The Misfits' "Mommy, Can I Go Out And Kill Tonight" (not that she has... yet) as record a pop ballad. This musical asset, however, is largely lost on most mainstream music critics and totally ignored by most of Pink's audience. Much to her chagrin, she occupies a niche among fans of Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys and their ilk; the pre- to early-teenage suburban girls of America and wherever else such creatures can be found. Her fame was so widespread among that audience that her record company has, so far, thought it prudent to mix utterances of the word "fuck" out of all songs that contain it on the first two albums she released. The result sounds like she's saying "fffk," but it's still plainly obvious that she's really saying "fuck." I hope her label comes to its senses soon and releases her audience doesn't consist entirely of preteen girls whose mothers would blanch if they heard someone saying "fuck" on one of their daughter's CDs.

Of course, that didn't stop her from dropping all kinds of f-bombs on future tracks, most notably 2010's "Fuckin' Perfect", which is a wonderful song.

Pink grew up around music and by the age of 13 was a regular at several Philadelphia-area dance clubs. By age 15 she had a record deal with La Face Records, singing for an all-girl R&B trio called Choice, which ultimately didn't work out. However, based on Pink's songwriting abilities during the Choice studio sessions, she got her own record deal with La Face as a solo artist and, in 1999, released her first solo album, Can't Take Me Home, which quickly went double-platinum and spawned a number of singles, notably "There You Go," "Most Girls" (which has been called the "I Will Survive" of the new millennium) and "You Make Me Sick," and each single release was packed with remixes, most notably a remix of "There You Go" by house artist Hani Num. She followed it up in 2001 with another multiplatinum release, M!ssundaztood, which thus far has spawned the überhit "Get The Party Started," along with the lesser hit "Don't Let Me Get Me," and got her further thrown into the spotlight at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards when she joined forces and compared lingerie with would-be Latina teenybopper Christina Aguilera, gangsta rap beeotch li'l Kim and R&B princess Mýa, to perform the theme from the movie Moulin Rouge, a cover of Patti Labelle's disco hit, the Francophone "Lady Marmalade." Missundaztood was nominated for a Grammy in 2002, and the Get The Party Started video won "Best Female Video" at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, an award which Pink accepted with the phrase "I'm too drunk for this shit."

Pink has worked extensively with Linda Perry, formerly of 4 Non Blondes. When they first met, the song "Eventually" was completed less than an hour later. Linda is also responsible for bringing her protégé to a wider audience, namely the 30-something lesbian crowd that makes up Linda's primary fanbase. Pink fandom among the lesbian community is a rapidly growing phenomenon, and Pink is totally cool with it. Perry, coincidentally, bought Pink her first lap dance at a (female) strip club while they were working on M!ssundaztood.

Pink enlisted the help of Rancid guitarist Tim Armstrong for the recording of her third full-length album, entitled Try This. Of late, she has been working with Shellback.

She got her nickname, "Pink," because she is known to turn a pinkish color whenever she is embarrassed or when she gets shy, and also from her admiration of Steve Buscemi's "Mr. Pink" character in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs.

There have been a lot of rumours lately that Pink is a lesbian, but they are so far just rumours -- no confirmation either way from Pink herself or her PR people. I like her a lot as it is, but if she does eventually out herself (if she is indeed a lesbian), she'd be so cool you could keep a side of beef in her for a month. It would seem that Pink is in fact bisexual, after all. She was apparently spotted recently getting frisky with actress Kristanna Loken, who played the T-X in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, at various nightclubs.

Miss Moore (if you're nasty) married (male) motocross racer Carey Hart on January 7, 2006, after a six-month engagement and five years of dating. After almost exactly two years of marriage, she and Carey separated, but they got back together and renewed their wedding vows in 2009. A daughter was born in mid-2011. Sorry, ladies.

Here's the wonderful Tegan and Sara honoring Pink at the 2013 Billboard Women in Music show. Just adorable!

If my prose hasn't clued you in yet, allow me to explicate: I love this woman!

Some other random facts:

  • Changes her hair color ten times a year on average.
  • Declined an invite to perform at Prince William's birthday party because he hunts foxes (like all male British royalty).
  • Appeared as herself in the films Rollerball (2002) and Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003).
  • Landed the role of Carolyn in the 2007 horror/slasher film Catacombs and the roll of Dede in the 2012 comedy Thanks for Sharing.
  • Is an ardent supporter of animal rights, and campaigns for PETA.
  • Alecia and musician Dallas Green formed a band, You+Me, in 2014. My take on it is acoustic folk-style pop.

DISCOGRAPHY:

Albums

There are a lot of pop singers at any given moment. Most of them are forgettable, unoriginal, uncreative, untalented, boring or loathsome. Pink stands out: her honesty can be startling if you're unused to pop songs that actually contain meaning, but ultimately, time spent listening to almost anything in her oeuvre is well worth it. She'll make you feel better.

Follow Pink on Twitter!

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I like it! 4 C!s