Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer-songwriter, actress, comedian, producer and entrepreneur. In nearly fifty years of her career, Midler has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 30 million albums worldwide.

She has released thirteen studio albums along with four soundtrack albums. She has recorded five live sets and six greatest hits compilations. She released forty-seven official singles, as well four video albums and ten music videos.

Midler came to prominence in 1970 when began singing in the Continental Baths, a local gay bathhouse, where she managed to build up a core following. Throughout her career, many of her songs became hits on the record charts, including "The Rose", "Wind Beneath My Wings", "Do You Wanna Dance?", "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "From a Distance". Midler would contribute on USA for Africa's 1985 fund-raising single "We Are the World", and participate at the Live Aid event at JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. In 2008, she debuted signed a contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to perform a series of shows titled Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On, which ended in January 2010.

Also, she starred in the first professional production of The Who's rock opera Tommy in 1971 and, during the 1980s, she starred in several motion pictures including The Rose, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, Outrageous Fortune, and Big Business. In 1988, Midler lent her voice to the animated character Georgette, a snobbish poodle, in Disney's Oliver & Company, and also starred in Beaches. The accompanying soundtrack remains Midler's all-time biggest selling disc, reaching No. 2 on Billboard's album chart and with U.S. sales of four million copies. It featured her biggest hit, "Wind Beneath My Wings", which went to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100, achieved Platinum status, and won Midler her third Grammy Award.

Movies Midler appeaerd in the 1990s include Scenes from a Mall, For the Boys, Hocus Pocus, and The First Wives Club. Midler won an Emmy Award in 1992 for her performance on an episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, during which she sang "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" to Johnny Carson. That night, Midler began singing "Here's That Rainy Day", Carson's favorite song; Carson joined in a few lyrics later.

Midler starred in her own sitcom in 2000, Bette, which featured Midler playing herself, a divine celebrity who is adored by her fans.

In the 2000s, Midler starred in Isn't She Great, Drowning Mona, and Then She Found Me and appeared in a supporting role in The Stepford Wives. Her Vegas show, Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On, played at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace from February 20, 2008 to January 31, 2010, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music, or Comedy Special in 2011.

In 2010, Midler voiced the character Kitty Galore in the animated film Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore. She is one of the producers of the Broadway production of the musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert which opened in February 2011. In June 2012, she received the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame in New York.