On This Day in Pink History… 8th June 2002, Pink was on Much Music

Happy 6th Birthday Willow!

Towards the end of 2010, there were many rumours going around the social media world that Pink and Carey were expecting their first child. Pink fans around the world were waiting on news to confirm the rumours as true or false and on 17th November 2010, Pink confirmed the news that she was expecting her first child on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

I’m eating for two these days

I’m terrified because she [doctor] thinks its a girl… my mom has always wished me a daughter just like me, I’m terrifed, one of us will go to jail.

Willow Sage Hart was born on 2nd June 2011. Pink took to Twitter to announce the news:

Three weeks after Willow’s birth, Pink posted a note on her website…

To whomever cares:

We are absolutely blissed out in love over here! To our fans and friends all over the world, thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes throughout this time in our life! Carey is a natural, (I knew he would be) and I finally found out what love really means. Don’t worry, I’m not writing an album full of sappy lullabies. Not yet, anyways?

In the interest of full disclosure: (AND BECAUSE I TELL IT LIKE I SEE IT)

Due to the unsettling, surprisingly aggressive and unsafe measures that the paparazzi seem to be willing to go to in order to secure that “first shot” of our daughter–stalking us, chasing us in cars and sitting outside of our home all day and all night, as new parents Carey and I decided that we would release personal photos of our Willow, and donate all of the money to charity.

We will be donating the money to children’s’ charities, among them one of our favorites, the Ronald McDonald House, an organization that houses and cares for the families of sick children so they can be together during treatment, as well as Autism Speaks.

Like any parents, we believe our little girl deserves the right to have privacy and be protected, but unfortunately, this media climate doesn’t seem to provide for that. I feel so grateful that after many years of hard work, music and motorcycles have elevated both Carey and me to such a place that the public has supported us in building our life and lifestyle together. We recognize that celebrity has its upsides and downsides and do our best to manage just being people without hiring stylists and bodyguards before one of us goes to the store to buy some milk. I’ve seen some photos of myself that make me smile and some that make me less smiley. But you see, it’s one thing to harass and stalk us, the adults, the celebrity that signed up for this life, but children should be protected and safe. There should be a clear distinction between us.

In EVERY other country that I recall, children’s faces are blurred out in magazine photos. Why is USA the only country that continues to financially incentivize intrusive paparazzi behavior to capitalize on photos of babies, infants and children? Why is this acceptable to any of us? Why is this even legal? These are questions I ask myself as a new parent. Why are celebrities/public figures having to seek restraining orders to keep strange grown men with still and video cameras from sitting perched outside of their children’s pre-schools and elementary schools, preying on little innocent kids? After all, if a stranger was sitting outside of a school taking photographs of random little girls and boys, wouldn’t he be arrested? Or, at least in Philadelphia, he would have to face a more primal sort of recourse. But because it’s the child of a celebrity, somehow it’s okay? I’m just not sure what is wrong with us as a society, that we do more than tolerate this, but our appetite for it seems insatiable. We buy these pictures. We buy these magazines that publish these paparazzi pictures. WHERE DOES IT STOP?

Here’s the bottom line: we don’t want you to take our little girl’s picture. We don’t want you to one day follow our little girl home from school. We don’t want our little girl’s picture in a magazine or on a blog. If you take or publish her picture, it is against our wishes, and without our consent as parents, as people.

Carey and I are new parents. We know we have so much to learn in our new role and are thankful for the family and friends around us. Not a day goes by that we are not grateful to the universe and to our fans and friends who believe in us–and to our foes, too (our best teachers)–for the incredibly interesting privileged lives we get to live each day. But this is about our daughter who just got here. In the face of camera lenses as long as my arm and flashbulbs as bright as the sun, Willow is powerless. All she has to protect her is us. But that’s not all she has; she has you.

To anyone out there that buys a magazine, or goes onto a website to look at pictures of other people’s children, may you at least think for a second about what you may inadvertently be supporting. We are so appreciative that people are interested in seeing our daughter. We WANT to share our joys with you, but as parents (and new parents), we should be able to govern these decisions, shouldn’t we? And to be clear, I’m speaking directly to these “stolen” photographs–paparazzi photos.

So when you see our middle fingers up in all of our pictures, now you know the motivation. It’s all we can do to stop images of a newborn baby from being printed without our consent. Can you imagine a world where they would blur out our middle finger to protect a “consumer” over blurring out an innocent child to protect their integrity and privacy?

Thank you for letting me say my piece. Do I expect this letter to change the world? No. But if it plants a seed of awareness, if a politician or an activist or a legislator or a teacher or police officer is prompted to even think about it–let alone engage, I have done my part on behalf of my daughter. Not surprising that lesson one from me to my daughter is to let one’s voice be heard.

I’ve never shied away from a controversial opinion because of the fear of bad press. My music and my fans and I connect year after year because I talk TO them and, man, do they so beautifully talk TO me. This is such a meaningful dialogue in my life. To all of my friends out there, I love you and I appreciate your help with this, and this happy little family cannot wait to visit your countries again and play music and rejoice in all the beauty that we share and have shared together all over the world.

We’ll call it a playdate!!!!! Xoxoxoxoxooxoxox

Love,
the new parents–learning as we go.
? kisses, besos.

P.S. baby poop really isn’t as bad as all the guys out there think. Careys’ already been pooed on, and he’s still breathing. Ahhhhh, ain’t love grand?

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On This Day in Pink History… 2nd June 2001, Pink attended the MTV Movie Awards

Skip to 2min 15secs to hear Pink talk about her dog, Fucker

On This Day in Pink History… 31st May 2003, Pink attended the MTV Movie Awards

On This Day in Pink History… 30th May 2010, Pink played at Pinkpop on the Summer Carnival Tour

On This Day in Pink History… 30th May 2006, Pink performed at MTVTRL

On This Day in Pink History… 23rd May 2016, Pink was on the Jimmy Kimmel Show

On This Day in Pink History… 18th May 2006, Who Knew was released

Who Knew was released as the second single from Pink’s fourth studio album, I’m Not Dead. Written by Pink, Max Martin and Dr. Luke, it was released by LaFace Records. The single also had the b-side Disconnected.

Upon its release, Who Knew was mostly well-received from music critics, who acclaimed it as a solid song on the album and lauded the lyrical content, however the song faced comparisons for having similarities with Kelly Clarkson’s 2004 single Since U Been Gone. The song was commercially successful worldwide, where it peaked in the top spot in countries including Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and component charts in the United States. In addition, the song is also Pink’s longest chart runner on the Hot 100, spending 36 weeks before dropping out.

The song is lyrically about loosing a friend to drugs. Pink says of her experience:

“My life was insane, I was [in her youth] out of control and doing lots of stupid things. Some of my friends were selling crack, and I got into drugs too. I’ve always been honest about that, although I don’t like going into details. I’ve got lots of young fans and I wouldn’t want to give them any ideas. I found a friend dead from a drug overdose when I was 14. He was a male friend, not a boyfriend. Most of the people at the funeral were just children. It should have been a wake-up call for me, but it wasn’t.”

In the Oceanic region, the song debuted at number six on the Australian Singles Chart. The song then rose and peaked at number two for two consecutive weeks. In total, the song stayed in the charts for thirty-two weeks, becoming Pink’s second longest charting single in that country. The song is also the seventy-fifth Best Of All Time single in Australia, and is certified platinum for sales of over 70,000 copies. It was ranked at number nine on ARIA’s Top 100 singles of 2006. The song had debuted at number thirty-six on the New Zealand Singles Chart, and eventually rose to number eleven, just missing the top ten. The song spent a total of twelve weeks on the charts.

In the European markets, the song was generally successful. Who Knew entered the UK Singles Chart at nineteen in early June, 2006 and ascended to a peak at five the following week. It is her joint fifth highest charting single in the UK and her second longest charting behind only So What. With a total of 26 weeks inside the top 100 songs it beats her number-one hit Just Like A Pill. The song had success throughout other charts in Europe, where it peaked in the top twenty in Switzerland, Austria, France, Belgium, Finland and Norway, while it peaked in the top fifty in The Netherlands and Sweden.

When the single was originally released in North America, Who Knew was less successful. Though it peaked at number nineteen on the BDS Airplay Chart in Canada, it was virtually ignored by American radio. In the U.S., where it was released to mainstream radio in May, 2006, it failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, initially reaching number 18 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart (which comprises the most popular songs yet to enter the Hot 100). Billboard magazine credited the poor performance of the single on radio with significantly reducing momentum of initial sales of I’m Not Dead.

The single’s video was directed by Dragon, a team comprising Sam Bayer, Robert Hales and Brian Lazzaro. It was filmed in a weekend in April, 2006 in Los Angeles, United States, and it was released to the internet and to UK music channels in early May 2006. The video reached number one on MTV Germany’s top ten and on TRL Italy. Who Knew was voted number one on TRL Germany twenty times, allowing Pink to earn the “Golden Tape”. In the U.S. Total Request Livebroadcast a “First Look” of the video in May, and it debuted on the show’s top ten countdown; it spent eight non-consecutive days on the countdown, peaking at number seven.

It features a young couple visiting a fairground and going on the rides, and at one point the boy puts a necklace on the girl. The video flashes back to the boy secretly injecting himself with drugs on a previous night while the girl is sleeping. At the carnival, when the girl is playing a game, the boy walks away. The girl realizes he’s gone and follows him, but when she tries to get him to stay with her he gets violent. He goes to the back of the fairground to inject himself with drugs and breaks into a sweat. His girlfriend wanders around looking for him, and finds him unconscious; he has overdosed. She gives him a kiss, gives back the necklace and phones for an ambulance; after it has arrived, she walks away crying. The video is inter-cut with shots of Pink singing the song at the entrance to the fairground.

Click on the image for Who Knew Lyrics

Click on the image for Disconnected Lyrics

On This Day in Pink History… 17th May 2014, Pink took part in the American Hot Shots Extreme Run

1min13secs to see Pink in the video!

In 2014, Pink took part in the American Hot Shot Extreme Run which proudly gives 100% of the profit to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.

Check out the video below for a quick aerial preview of the terrain. The footage was captured with remote control helicopter mounted digicams, which will also be used during the event to capture footage of your run!

The American Hotshots Extreme Run staff are big fans of Tough Mudder™, and we’ve attended many different obstacle runs. The big two…Tough Mudder™ and Spartan Race™ – are the undisputed industry leaders. Our mission is to provide obstacles similar in quality and magnitude, with a few unique twists of our own.

For starters…the 10,000 acre ranch where our event will be held, in the heart of Santa Barbara County’s wine country, will be hard for anybody to compete with. Our signature course will also be designed and built over a 6 month period, giving us unmatched quality control.