Beth Ditto

Bursting to the world's attention as a larger than life force of nature with a soulful, screeching bellow of a voice, Beth Ditto's forceful music and outrageous personality took the world by storm when she broke onto the scene in the summer of 2007. As an unlikely mainstream celebrity, Beth grew up in Arkansas learning to sing in a local Baptist church choir before - inspired by punk acts like The Dicks, X-Ray Spex and Siouxsie and the Banshees - she moved to Washington to form Gossip. After years toiling away on the underground circuit, the band got their big break when the single 'Standing in the Way of Control' was used on the soundtrack to TV show 'Skins' and quickly became a huge hit.

A fearless front-woman known for stage diving, stripping off and championing gay rights issues, Ditto became an icon for lesbians and fuller-figured women when she was named Coolest Person in Rock by the NME and posed naked on their front cover to celebrate; she also became an agony aunt for The Guardian newspaper, designed a fashion line for Evans, modelled for Jean Paul Gaultier and was soon being snapped by the tabloids hanging out with Kate Moss and Lily Allen. She performed at the BRIT Awards with Mika, the NME Awards with Jarvis Cocker and featured on the Simian Mobile Disco track 'Cruel Intentions' before heading into the studio with James Ford to record her solo debut 'Beth Ditto EP' in 2011. In 2013 Ditto married her long-time girlfriend Kristin Ogata in Hawaii, making it legal in Oregon in 2014 after the laws passed same-sex marriage. In 2016 Ditto confirmed that Gossip had parted ways and that she would focus her attention on her solo career and side ventures.