Melissa Etheridge

In October 2004 she was diagnosed with breast cancer, but is expected to make a full recovery. In 2004 she re-entered the limelight by recording a song in conjunction with former Deep Purple legend Jon Lord "The Sun will Shine Again" and also appearing with Benny and Bjorn at the London 5th Anniversary performance of the musical based on Abba songs, "Mamma Mia". Though limited in acting experience it has been announced that a sitcom is in production to star Etheridge as a lesbian living with her heterosexual male best friend (together raising a third person's child.) Critics have predicted that it will be "like Will & Grace except cancelled.". After the break-up of Abba in 1982 Frida released a successful album, "There's Something Going On" though the follow-up "Shine" was less popular and proved her last foray into the music world for some years. After splitting from Cypher she went on in 2003 to marry actress Tammy Lynn Michaels. In 1992 Anni-Frid married His Highness Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss von Plauen (1950-1999), of the Princely Reuss family. She had a long-term partnership with Julie Cypher, which whom she had two children via a sperm donor, David Crosby. She married Benny on October 6, 1978 - divorcing in 1981.

Etheridge is also famous as a gay rights activist, having publicly come out as a lesbian during President Bill Clinton's first inauguration in January 1993. She made a second in 1971, produced by Benny Andersson, laying the foundations for ABBA. She has won the Grammy award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance twice in her career, for the song "Ain't It Heavy" in 1992 and "Come to My Window", in 1994. In 1967 Anni-Frid won a TV talent contest, and made an album for EMI. Two others went platinum and another gold. Anni-Frid got her first job as a jazz singer at the age of 13, then formed her own band, the Anni-Frid Four, marrying the bass player Ragnar Fredriksson at age 18, with whom she had two children before divorcing. Three of them have gone multi-platinum: Melissa Etheridge (1988), Yes I Am (1993) and Your Little Secret (1996). Synni died before Anni-Frid was two, so she was brought up by her grandmother in Eskilstuna, Sweden.

Etheridge has produced eight albums since signing her first major recording contract in 1987. At the end of WWII Anni-Frid, her mother and grandmother fled to Sweden for fear of reprisals from the Norwegian population - whose socialist government put many German-fathered children into mental institutions, or sent them overseas. She was born in Leavenworth, Kansas. After a German magazine published the story of her origins in 1977, Anni-Frid discovered that her father had not died. Melissa Lou Etheridge (born May 29, 1961) is an American rock musician. Anni-Frid was born illegitimately in Ballangen, near Narvik, Norway as a result of a liaison between Synni - her mother - and a married German sergeant, Alfred Haase, during the German military occupation. Anni-Frid believed that her father had died when his ship to Germany was sunk during the war. CMT.com: Melissa Etheridge: Biography (http://www.cmt.com/artists/az/melissa_etheridge/bio.jhtml). Anni-Frid-Synni "Frida" Lyngstad (born November 15, 1945) is best known as one of the four singers in the pop group ABBA.

Lucky (2004). Skin (2001). Breakdown (1999). Your Little Secret (1995).

Yes I Am (1993). Never Enough (1992). Brave and Crazy (1989). Melissa Etheridge (1988).