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Beth Ditto (born 1981) is the vocalist of American band The Gossip. She is from Arkansas.

Ditto came to wider public attention in November 2006 when she was selected by NME as the coolest person in rock - being placed at number one in the magazine's annual 'Cool List'. The magazine cited her 'non-conformity' as the reason for her selection - she is a lesbian, an outspoken advocate of gay rights, weighs around 15 stone , and is also in a relationship with a transgendered individual who was born a woman but identifies as a man.

The band's breakthrough song "Standing in the Way of Control" was written by Ditto as a response to her government's decision to deny gays the right to marriage in the U.S. "Nobody in the States was that surprised or shocked by what Bush did, but it made everyone I know feel helpless and cheated," Beth says. "I wrote the chorus to try and encourage people not to give up. It's a scary time for civil rights, but I really believe the only way to survive is to stick together and keep fighting."

Ditto was nominated for Sexiest Woman Of The Year in the NME Awards 2007, where she performed the Heaven 17 song "Temptation" with former Pulp frontman, Jarvis Cocker, although she lost out on the award to Kate Moss. She has also received criticism following a recent outburst in which she claimed that supporting Scissor Sisters on tour was "soul-sucking".

Trivia

• She has never eaten squirrels as is commonly misreported. However, her cousin and father did.

• Says she doesn't wear deodorant, and also doesn't shave her armpits. "I think punks usually smell." she claims.

• She posed nude for On Our Backs, a women-run lesbian erotica magazine. "It was a big moment in my life," she told Curve magazine. "It was kind of a radical thing to do. I got my period just 10 minutes before we got there, and I was totally bleeding. I was doing it with my tranny boyfriend, who I’m in love with, and I was totally bleeding — how radical is that? — and I’m a fat person, and I’m a femme. It felt really good."

References

1. http://www.gossipyouth.com/bio/
2. http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2006/11/why_beth_ditto_is_the_coolest.html
3. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2464811,00.html
4. Curve Magazine
5. The Guardian Music
6. Beth Ditto criticises Scissor Sisters fans.
7. CNN, The insiders guide to Beth Ditto, retrieved 5th February 2007
8. Interview in The Sunday Times' Style section, February 4th 2007
9. http://www.psychopedia.com/dailynews/2006/11/listen_upi_dont_think_were_in.html

External links

• The Gossip website
• BBC report of NME cool list
• Subculture Magazine Interview

• American rock singers
• American female singers
• Lesbian musicians
• LGBT musicians from the United States
• People from Arkansas
• 1981 births
• Living people
• Blue-eyed soul singers
• Punk rock musicians
• Punk rock singers
• Kill Rock Stars