Bette Midler

Bette Midler is a Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, comedienne and actress. Named in honor of Bette Davis, Midler’s career began performing off-broadway until she developed the stage persona The Divine Miss M while singing at the world-famous Continental Baths gay bathhouse. A pre-fame Barry Manilow, the venue’s in-house piano player, produced her Grammy-nominated debut album which scored three US top 40 singles including the Grammy-nominated “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy”. Midler took home the Best New Artist Grammy that year, her first of three career wins.

Throughout the 1970s, Midler found further success with music, Broadway, television and film. The Rose, Midler’s 1979 acting debut, earned her both Oscar and Academy Award nominations, and its namesake song won her a Golden Globe and another Grammy – also giving Midler her first success overseas.

The early 1980s proved less successful for Midler with four under-performing singles and a box office flop with the film Jinxed. However, the second half of the decade would prove far more fruitful with a handful of very successful films including Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune and Beaches, the latter featuring a chart-topping cover of “Wind Beneath My Wings” that won Midler her third Grammy and is considered one of the greatest songs in American film history.

Since 1990, Midler has continued to have various successes including the #2 song “From A Distance”, the Golden Globe-winning tv-movie Gyspy, the films Hocus Pocus and The First Wives Club, and two Gold-certified albums (For The Boys – Soundtrack and Bette Midler Sings the Rosemary Clooney Songbook). In 2008, Midler appeared in her own Vegas show titled The Showgirl Must Go On. In 2012, she won a lifetime award from the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. In 2017, Midler won a second Tony Award for her role in Hello, Dolly!.