Beth Ditto (born 19 February 1981 in Arkansas ) is the vocalist of American band Gossip.
Ditto came to wider public attention in November 2006 when she was selected by NME as the coolest person in rock - being placed at number one in the magazine's annual 'Cool List'. The magazine cited her 'non-conformity' as the reason for her selection - she is a lesbian, an outspoken advocate of gay rights, weighs 210 lbs and is also in a relationship with a transman.
The band's breakthrough song "Standing in the Way of Control" was written by Ditto as a response to her government's decision to deny gays the right to marriage in the U.S. "Nobody in the States was that surprised or shocked by what Bush did, but it made everyone I know feel helpless and cheated," Ditto says. "I wrote the chorus to try and encourage people not to give up. It's a scary time for civil rights, but I really believe the only way to survive is to stick together and keep fighting."
Ditto was nominated for Sexiest Woman Of The Year at the NME Awards 2007 where she performed the Heaven 17 song "Temptation" with former Pulp frontman, Jarvis Cocker, although she lost out on the award to Kate Moss. She has also received criticism following a recent outburst in which she claimed that supporting Scissor Sisters on tour was "soul-sucking". However, in 2007 she appeared alongside Ana Matronic and Jake Shears from Scissor Sisters on the UK music show Transmission, where they discussed touring together and how much they had all enjoyed it. She is placed #10 on Spinner.com's Women Who Rock Right Now
Recently she has refused to play in-store at Topshop stores citing her dissatisfaction with their clothes range not available in her size. She went as far as to offer to design clothes for them saying, "Give me the job. I want to design. I want you to make clothes for big girls - big boys. I want you to make big sizes."
Ditto posed nude for On Our Backs, a women-run lesbian erotica magazine. "It was a big moment in my life," she told Curve magazine. "It was kind of a radical thing to do. I got my period just 10 minutes before we got there, and I was totally bleeding. I was doing it with my tranny boyfriend, who I’m in love with, and I was totally bleeding — how radical is that? — and I’m a fat person, and I’m a femme. It felt really good."
Ditto has recorded a solo album, produced by Calvin Johnson at his Dub Narcotic Studio. The album has not yet seen a commercial release. Ditto also recorded a duet with Johnson: the track "Lightning Rod For Jesus" appears on Johnson's 2002 solo album What Was Me.
Ditto currently writes an advice column for British newspaper The Guardian, appearing in its 'G2' section on Fridays, entitled "What Would Beth Ditto Do?"
