Helen Reddy, the Australian singer whose anthem I Am Woman captured the energy of 1970’s feminism, has died aged 78.

Reddy’s family announced that she passed away in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Her children Traci Donat and Jordan Sommers said 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.”

Reddy has a series of hits in the 1970’s including a recording of I Don’t Know How to Love Him from the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Delta Dawn and Crazy Love, but all of these were dwarfed by I Am Woman which inspired a generation of women with it’s lyrics declaring “I am strong, I am invincible, I am woman.”

A top selling artist in the mid 1970’s she generated controversy in the 1973 when she collected the Grammy award for best female vocalist and famously thanked “God because she makes everything possible.”

Reddy retired from live performance in 2002 and had a major career change. She headed to university and studied psychology and went on to work as a clinical hypnotherapist and motivational speaker. She returned to singing in 2011. Speaking to OUTinPerth she explained that she decided to get back into singing after singing a song at her half-sister Toni Lamond’s 80th birthday party.

“She asked if I’d sing a duet with her, and you can’t say no to your sister on her birthday. I heard my voice on the monitors for the first time in ten years and I thought ‘That sounds alright.’” Reddy revealed that the tune that pulled her out of retirement was Breezin’ Along With the Breeze, a tune from the 1920s.

The singer’s life was recently depicted in the film I Am Woman which currently streaming on Stan.

OIP Staff

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The Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman will arrive at streaming service Stan from 28th August. The film was set for a cinema release in May but was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The film follows the Australian singers journey to fame. Reddy arrived in New York in 1966, virtually broke and a single mother of a toddler, before she went on to become one of the most successful recording artists of her generation. She wrote and sang the song I Am Woman that became the anthem for the women’s movement in the 1970s.

Described as a “film for our times”, the producers say I Am Woman is a story of fearless ambition and passion, about a woman who led the way for other women seeking equality by smashing societal norms to become the international singing superstar she always dreamed of being.

Tilda Cobham-Hervey (Hotel Mumbai, 52 Tuesdays) stars as Helen Reddy and she is joined in the cast by Evan Peters (American Animals, X Men, Deadpool 2), who plays Helen’s legendary manager and husband Jeff Wald, and Danielle Macdonald (Skin, Patti Cake$, Bird Box, Dumplin’) as the legendary rock journalist Lilian Roxon and Helen’s friend.

The film, directed by Unjoo Moon, premiered to acclaim at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.

OUTinPerth spoke to Helen Reddy back in 2014 and she shared with us the power of her iconic hit and why it’s still relevant today. At the time Katy Perry’s Roar was at the top of the charts, and we asked Reddy if she was surprised woman were still fighting for rights and recognition nearly four decades after she topped the charts.

“Nothing happens overnight and sometimes you’ve just got to hang in for the long haul,” Reddy said, “But we should all be protesting about something, it keeps us alive.” Reddy declared.

Reddy grew up in a vaudevillian show-biz family, musical theatre matriarch Toni Lamond is her half sister. Reddy recalls that her first ever performance was here in Perth.

“That’s where I started my career, 1946 at the Tivolli Theatre. I was five years old and I was a plant in the audience. My Dad would come out and say ‘Is there a little boy or a little girl out there who would like to sing a song with me?’ I’d be up like a shot and we sing a number and then at the end he’d ask ‘Now, you’ve never seen me before have you?’ and I’d answer ‘No, Daddy’ and then run off into the wings, now if that’s not a camp performance I don’t know what is!”

Log into Stan on from 28th August to see the film.

OIP Staff

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Helen Reddy’s name will always be synonymous with her multi-million selling hit ‘I Am Woman’. The song became a battle call for the women’s liberation movement of the early 1970’s and just the mention of Reddy’s name will make many people start singing it’s opening line ‘I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar”.

OUTinPerth spoke to the legendary singer from her home in Santa Monica, Claifornia. After a decade of living in Australia, Reddy has recently returned to her second home the USA. It’s not the only big change in her life though. She’s heading out on tour in 2014 and will be coming to Perth in April, something her fans thought they would never see as Reddy previously completed a final world tour and vowed that she’d never perform again.

Reddy confesses that she’s yet to hear Katy Perry’s top selling tune ‘Roar’ which critics have noted taps into the lyrics of Reddy’s iconic hit.

“We share the same birthday though,” reveals Reddy, “and our names sound quite similar too. But I think she’s a real go-er!”

Asked if it’s surprising that nearly forty years after the women’s liberation movement was at its height if it’s surprising that women still need to sing about their need to ‘roar’ Reddy was philosophical.

“Nothing happens overnight and sometimes you’ve just got to hang in for the long haul,” Reddy said, “But we should all be protesting about something, it keeps us alive.”

In her latter years Reddy has stopped singing the song in her live shows. Instead prefer to deliver a spoken word version of the anthem. Whether she’ll belt out the tune during her tour or opt for a different approach is something Reddy was not willing to give away, breaking into a fit of laughs she told us to “Wait and see”.

Reddy grew up in a vaudevillian show-biz family, musical theatre matriarch Toni Lamond is her half sister. Reddy recalls that her first ever performance was here in Perth.

“That’s where I started my career, 1946 at the Tivolli Theatre. I was five years old and I was a plant in the audience. My Dad would come out and say ‘Is there a little boy or a little girl out there who would like to sing a song with me?’ I’d be up like a shot and we sing a number and then at the end he’d ask ‘Now, you’ve never seen me before have you?’ and I’d answer ‘No, Daddy’ and then run off into the wings, now if that’s not a camp performance I don’t know what is!”

The singer said she enjoyed her time away from the music world, she studied hypnotherapy and spent 10 years practicing as a therapist but it was singing at her sister’s eightieth birthday that drew her back into the world of performance.

“She asked if I’d sing a duet with her, and you can’t say no to your sister on her birthday. I heard my voice on the monitors for the first time in ten years and I thought ‘That sounds alright.'”

Reddy reveals that the tune that pulled her out of retirement was ‘Breezin’ Along With the Breeze’, a tune from the 1920’s.

While Reddy is clearly eager to be back on the stage, she is however less enticed about the prospect of recording again, but leaves the door open, politely saying, “Let’s just wait and see.” Yet she’s very clear that she’s raring to go with the live performances. “I’d be on there right now if I could, the stage is where I live my life and the rest of the time I’m just waiting to go on,” declares Reddy.

Helen Reddy is performing at the Crown Theatre on Thursday April 17, 2014. Tickets are available from Ticketek.

Graeme Watson

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