Helen Reddy Has Died At 78

2020 keeps throwing us curveball after curveball. For example, we’ve already had one iconic champion of women’s rights leave us this month. But the universe decided to make it two. Yesterday it was reported that Helen Reddy, singer of the 1079’s feminist anthem, “I Am Woman,” has died.

The Guardian says that the news of Helen’s death was confirmed by her children, Traci and Jordan, yesterday on her official fan page. Helen was diagnosed with dementia back in 2015, and she died yesterday afternoon. She had been living in a Los Angeles nursing home for professional entertainers for the past little while. Traci and Jordan wrote:

“It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Helen Reddy, on the afternoon of September 29th 2020 in Los Angeles. She was a wonderful Mother, Grandmother and a truly formidable woman. Our hearts are broken. But we take comfort in the knowledge that her voice will live on forever.”

They’re absolutely right about her voice living on forever, because if you’re talking about the Women’s liberation movement, or women in the ’70s, or historical girl power songs, you can’t not talk about Helen Reddy. Helen was born in Australia and into a well-known showbusiness family from down under. In the mid-60s she moved to New York with her daughter Traci and met her second husband, a music manager named Jeff Wald, who worked with her to break into the entertainment business. Her cover of “I Don’t Know How To Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar reached the #13 spot on the Billboard charts in 1971.

One year later, Helen released “I Am Woman,” which was a really good time to release a song about being a woman and letting people hear you roar in numbers too big to ignore. Ms. magazine was also launched that year. “I Am Woman” hit the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100, as well as a bunch more charts. I bet you couldn’t roll a shopping cart past an aisle of canned vegetables in 1972 without hearing “I Am Woman” humming over the grocery store sound system. Alice Cooper once called Helen, “The Queen of Housewife Rock,” and she kind of was (she was the world’s top-selling female vocalist of 1973 and 1974).

Helen also appeared in a bunch of TV and movie projects, like on The Love Boat, The Jeffersons, The Muppet Show, and Fantasy Island, or playing the nun in Airport 1975, and Nora in Pete’s Dragon.

Helen will clearly be most remembered for “I Am Woman,” because it was everywhere and defined a very specific moment in feminist culture. But it launched a career that included other hits like, “Delta Dawn,” “Angie Baby,” and “Leave Me Alone (Ruby Red Dress).” And I have to end this with “Emotion,” because you cannot tell me it isn’t the 1970’s ode to late-night fuck boy booty calls. Come on, she’s performing it in a dressing gown, how can it not be?

Rest in peace, Helen Reddy.

Pic: Wenn.com