Holly Knight

Throughout the 1980s, Holly Knight didn’t just compose anthems that became the soundtrack for millions of people’s lives, she also created and crafted empowering odes to independence, liberation and equality – and her work helped define the MTV 1980s.
These universal themes have never been more relevant than they are today which is why we still hear her music every day. On television, films, and commercials, Knight’s work has become not just ubiquitous – but also generation-defining.
Over her illustrious five decade long career, Knight has written nine songs for Tina Turner, including: (Simply)”The Best” and “Better Be Good To Me”; “Love Is A Battlefield” and “Invincible” forPat Benatar; “The Warrior” for Patty Smyth and many more with such legends as Aerosmith, Heart, Rod Stewart, Chaka Khan, Kiss, Cheap Trick, Bon Jovi, Hall and Oates and many more.

Her songs have appeared in movies as varied as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Thelma and Louise, Thirteen Going On Thirty, Anchorman ll, Dallas Buyers Club, The Other Woman, and more recently, Maxxxine, If, Eighty For Brady, and Cocaine Bear. Her song, “The Best” was licensed for one of the most highly viewed commercial spots in tv history during Superbowl 2023, and her songs have featured on TV shows including Schitts Creek, GLOW, Stranger Things, WWE,The Masked Singer, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, American Idol, The Voice, The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy and American Horror Story. Three of her songs were featured in, “Tina:Tina Turner Musical,” which started out on the West End in London, moved to Broadway, winning eleven Tony nominations and has now, not only hit the road, but has residencies in The Netherlands, Hamburg, Madrid and Australia. She also has a song in the musical, “Moulon Rouge.” In 2020, President Biden used The Best to celebrate his
victory speech to the presidency.

In 2013, Knight was inducted into the 2013 Songwriters Hall of Fame.A vital force behind the sound of some of rock’s most powerful female artists, Holly Knight’s iconic musical imprint is woven into the very fabric of the MTV generation. Her songs have withstood the test of time, remaining firmly entrenched even in today’s pop culture. She is one of only a handful of women inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and her songwriting has earned numerous awards for herself and the artists who have recorded her songs, including three Grammys in the Rock Vocal Performance category and thirteen ASCAP Awards. Songs she has written and co-written have appeared on records totaling more than 300 million in record sales.

Holly’s early training began at age four when she began her studies as a classical pianist for ten years. “Music was my first language, even before my legs reached the floor when I climbed onto the piano bench.”
An interviewer once asked Knight why so many of her songs seem to be about fighting. Her answer was simple: “My songs aren’t so much about fighting with someone as they are about
fighting for something .”Proving that her songs are timeless and still sought after, the song, “Love Is A Battlefield” was
sampled by PITBULL, which he then  created into “We Are Strong.” “Baby Me,” which Knight wrote for Chaka Khan with songwriting legend, Billy Steinberg, was sampled by rapper G-Eazy for his recent song, Gerard.

Not one to sit back on her laurels, Knight is still as passionate and driven about music as she was in her late teens. Thriving on diversity, it’s her ability to move from one genre to the next
that has given her this 50-year career in music.  Knight has just released her memoirs entitled, “I Am The Warrior- My Crazy Life Writing theHits and Rocking The MTV  Eighties.” Released on Permuted Press and distributed by Simon and Shuster, it has been listed as the #1 Hot New Release in Popular Music on both Amazon, and Audible, (she narrated the audio book.) It has been described as a love letter to the Eighties, telling the story of rock and roll survival, written by a pioneering woman songwriter and producer whose stories, wild and true, are only matched in number by her amazing catalog of songs.