Melissa Manchester

Melissa Manchester’s extraordinary career began when the native New Yorker signed her first publishing deal at 17. Soon she was backing up Bette Midler as a founding member of the Harlettes and studying songwriting with Paul Simon at New York University.

Today, Manchester teaches music to students at the University of Southern California, where the pupils urged her to record a studio album, “YOU GOTTA LOVE THE LIFE”. Following the stint with Bette Midler, Manchester’s solo career earned critical praise and commercial success. Manchester’s recording of the Peter Allen/Carole Bayer Sager anthem “Don’t Cry Out Loud” delivered her first Grammy nomination for Best Pop Female Vocal Performance in 1979, and she won the award in the same category four years later for “You Should Hear How She Talks About You”. Two of her songs, “Through the Eyes of Love” and “The Promise,” were nominated for Academy Awards in the same year.