By Dave Parsons
Pittsburgh PA native, Melinda Colaizzi, spent 15 years, as a singer-songwriter in a rock band, a music business executive working with companies like Live Nation and ShowClix, and as caretaker and advocate during her mother’s cancer battle. Noticing the gender disparity in the music industry, and how underrepresented women are in healthcare research funding, Colaizzi learned that Pittsburgh was home to Magee-Womens Research Institute, the nation’s largest research institute dedicated to women’s health. The wheels were put in motion….. why not unite and rock the future of healthcare for all women through the power of music?
Women Who Rock was born from these needs and is a trailblazing brand dedicated to supporting women in music, empowerment, and advocating for women’s health. The yearly concert sold out Stage AE in Pittsburgh. The show was headlined by legendary musician Melissa Etheridge, who is also a breast cancer survivor.
The crowd was treated to wag before they got to the doors. A photo op on the pink carpet outside, and dozens of tables from every area of women’s health you could imagine. There were tables filled to the brim with donated items being raffled off, including a guitar autographed by Etheridge.
Not to mention a full-blown merch boutique with branded Women Who Rock merchandise. This was not your usual fund raiser. Colaizzi and her crew are serious about raising some serious money for women’s health.
Pittsburgh DJ Femi kicked things off with a great set and the local dance company Attack Theatre treated the crowd to some choreographed numbers. Women who rock are always on the outlook for the next female rising start and this year it was Grace Campbell, who did an acapella performance. The year’s Impact Award winner was DJ legend Michele Michaels from WDVE. Michaels offered that “everyone who’s here tonight is doing something magical for the future of all of us.”
That left the stage to Melissa Etheridge, who at 63 can make entertainers look bad who are half her age. Taking the stage in a black outfit, with matching leather jacket and black cowboy hat, her long blonde hair bouncing with every step, you could tell she meant business. Must Be Crazy For Me started the show, with If I Wanted To to follow.
In taking the crowd to through her earliest albums, Etheridge reminisced that she made some really great poor choices, real expensive ones back then and shared her appreciation ….thank God there was no social media back then.
Etheridge also shared that she is Twenty years cancer-free! … and offered Today I visited the Magee-Womens Research Institute. An amazing place, very happy to be associated with them.
Unlike a lot of fundraising crowds, the audience was clearly there to see Etheridge. There was little chit chat on the floor in front of the stage, and instead all eyes were on the stage and lips were singing along to every word as Etheridge shared songs from her 40 year career. Come To My Window started the path to the end of the show and I’m The Only One brought the evening to a close. She and the band got called back out of an encore of Like The Way I Do, including Etheridge doing a drum solo with her drummer.
When it was all said and done Women Who Rock were well into counting hundreds of thousands of dollars for women’s health research, and those in attendance headed for home and already talking of coming to the event in 2025.
Melissa Etheridge setlist
Must Be Crazy For Me
If I Wanted To
Don’t You Need
I Want To Cone Over
Monster
I Run For Life
Ain’t That Bad
A Burning Woman
Come To My Window
Bring Me Some Water
I’m The Only One
Like The Way I Do
