Legendary 'I Am Woman' Singer Helen Reddy Has Died

Reddy, who rose to the top of the charts in the early '70s with her feminist anthem, had other hits including 'Angie Baby.'

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

September 30 2020 9:46 AM EST

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Helen Reddy, whose feminist anthem "I Am Woman" rose to the top of the Billboard chart and became the sound of a movement in 1971, died at 78 on Tuesday, according to CNN.

"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," read a statement on Facebook from her children Traci Donat and Jordan Summers.

While an official cause of death has not been released, Reddy had had Addison's disease for decades. She had a kidney removed when she was 17. She also had had dementia since 2015, according to The New York Times.

As a struggling artist, Reddy left her native Australia for the heartbeat of the music industry in the United States and was unsurprisingly met with sexism. Her musical response to male executives controlling the narrative about women artists' place in the industry dovetailed with the rise of the women's liberation movement. The song became a number 1 hit and a cultural phenomenon -- and it made Reddy a star. She won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female in 1972.