page_title: Melissa Etheridge
section_title: 1993–1995: Yes I Am
hierarchical_section_title: Melissa Etheridge / Career / 1993–1995: Yes I Am
caption_attribution_description: English: Concert ticket for Melissa Etheridge presented by VH-1. Deer Creek Theater Noblesville, Indiana June 7, 1995
context_page_description: Melissa Lou Etheridge is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and activist. Her self-titled debut album Melissa Etheridge was released in 1988 and became an underground success. The album peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200, and its lead single, "Bring Me Some Water", garnered Etheridge her first Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female. In 1993, Etheridge won her first Grammy award for her single "Ain't It Heavy" from her third album, Never Enough. Later that year, she released what would become her mainstream breakthrough album, Yes I Am. Its tracks "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window" both reached the top 30 in the United States, and the latter earned Etheridge her second Grammy award. Yes I Am peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200, and spent 138 weeks on the chart, earning a RIAA certification of 6× Platinum, her largest selling album to date.
  In October 2004, Etheridge was diagnosed with breast cancer, and underwent surgery and chemotherapy. At the 2005 Grammy Awards, she made a return to the stage and, while bald from chemotherapy, performed a tribute to Janis Joplin with the song "Piece of My Heart".
context_section_description: In January 1993, Etheridge came out publicly as a lesbian. On September 21, 1993, she released Yes I Am, which became her mainstream breakthrough album. Co-produced with Hugh Padgham, Yes I Am spent 138 weeks on the Billboard 200 charts and peaked at #15. It scored two mainstream hits: "Come to My Window" and her only Billboard Top 10 single,  "I'm the Only One", which also hit #1 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Yes I Am earned a RIAA certification of 6× platinum.
  Etheridge earned her second Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Female for her single "Come to My Window", based on an unsettling scene in the Pavarotti film, "Yes, Giorgio". She also garnered two additional nominations in the Best Rock Song category for "I'm the Only One" and "Come to My Window", losing to Bruce Springsteen's "Streets of Philadelphia".
  In 1993, Etheridge boycotted playing shows in Colorado over its passage of Amendment 2.
  Also in 1994, she was honored by VH-1 for her work with the AIDS organization L.A. Shanti. During the televised occasion, she highlighted the appearance with a performance of "I'm the Only One" and a duet with Sammy Hagar covering The Rolling Stones' song, "Honky Tonk Woman."
  The album's fifth single, "If I Wanted To", debuted in February 1995 on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 25, the highest debut for a single in 1995.
  The success of Yes I Am helped increase sales of Etheridge's earlier albums. In 1995, Melissa Etheridge earned a RIAA certification of 2× platinum, while Never Enough earned a RIAA certification of platinum.
  Etheridge's follow-up to Yes I Am was the moderately successful Your Little Secret (1995). The album was not as well received by critics as Etheridge's prior recordings. Featuring a lead single of the same name, Your Little Secret is the highest charting album of Etheridge's career, having reached #6 on the Billboard album charts; however, the album spent only 41 weeks on the chart. The album produced two Top 40 singles "I Want to Come Over" (Billboard #22, RPM #1) and "Nowhere to Go" (Billboard #40) and earned a RIAA certification of 2× platinum.
caption: Melissa Etheridge concert ticket, 1995
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