Beth Ditto (born 1981) is the vocalist of American band The 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 around 210 lbs. (about 15 stone), and is also in a relationship with a transgendered individual who was born female but identifies as a man.
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."[cite this quote]
Ditto was nominated[attribution needed] for Sexiest Woman Of The Year in the NME Awards 2007,[citation needed] 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.
Recently she has refused to play in-store at Top Shop 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?"
Ditto is from Arkansas.
As is commonly reported, she sometimes ate squirrels as a child. In an interview for NME magazine, she commented "I did eat squirrels when I was a kid, people in Arkansas just do - they'd think you were a freak if you ate squid there!"[10]
She doesn't wear deodorant, and also doesn't shave her armpits. "I think punks usually smell." she claims.[11]
She is close personal friends with Ana Matronic (from the band Scissor Sisters) and recently "dragged" Ana along to the 2007 Glastonbury Festival for moral support (the Scissor Sisters were not performing at this year's festival)[citation needed]. They both appeared in interviews for the BBC's coverage of the festival on Sunday 24th June 2007.
