The Bite Magazine Issue 17

In 2009, P!nk appeared on the television series Behind the Music which chronicled her life and challenges before and during her music career. She revealed how she used music as an outlet to get through her parent’s separation and inevitable divorce. At the age of 11, the singer started experimenting with recreational drugs such as marijuana and by the time she had reached 13, she had upgraded to LSD, PCP, ecstasy, and crystal meth. While her mother was away at work, Alicia (her real name) turned her family home into a drug house, cooking and selling drugs without her mother’s knowledge. Two years later, Alicia’s big break came while she was high on a cocktail of drugs and performed a song over a hip-hop beat in a Philadel- phia nightclub. A DJ who happened to be at the club was so impressed by her talent that he wanted to help further her music career; this was when she first adopted the R&B sound. After her first album and appearance with fellow singers Christina Aguil- era and Mya, and rapper Lil’ Kim on the cover of ‘Lady Marmalade’ for the film Moulin Rouge , R&B would no longer reign in P!nk’s long-term musical ambitions. Instead, she channelled her energies into making music she would be comfortable with. In order to tap into her desired creativity, the singer worked with childhood idol, Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes to create her second studio album, Missundaztood and a new pop-rock sound. “When I first met Alicia,” Perry said in an interview on P!nk’s Behind the Music VH1 segment, “it was like meeting the younger me and we just instantly connected. I knew this girl was about to open up a whole lot of doors for me.” P!nk then spoke about her first meeting with Perry, “Linda was the first person that sat me down and put a microphone in my hand, and just said, ‘here, tell me how you’re feeling?’” This kind of interaction resulted in an album that sold over 10 million copies which spoke of divorce, alienation and the lows of love and would eventually help heal the pain from her childhood. One of the songs, the heartfelt ‘Family Portrait’ spoke about the divorce of her parents, in which P!nk explained, “It was so emotionally charged and sad, [that] people were just like ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe you just did that.’” Her mother recalled, “When I heard ‘Family Portrait’ for the first time, it was overwhelming. That’s when I started to realise just how much of an impact the divorce had [on her].” As Perry became the go-to songwriter for artists who wanted emotional release in their songs, the two women’s writing relationship became strained. This was especially the case when Perry started working with Christina Aguilera on her album Stripped whom P!nk did not take a particular liking to. “I took it really personal when she started working with other artists,” Pink said. “Especially artists I don’t really like.” While enter- tainment journalist Lola Ogunnaike said the singer was like a jealous lover and “felt like her girl had been stolen”, music producer L.A. Reid remarked, “There wouldn’t be a ‘Beautiful’ with Christina Aguilera if there wasn’t P!nk’s Missun- dazstood album.” bite music celeb