courtney love

Courtney Michelle Love (née Harrison; born July 9, 1964) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actress whose career has spanned four decades. She has had a significant impact on female-fronted alternative acts and performers, with NME naming her one of the most influential singers in alternative culture between 1990 and 2020.

Love had an itinerant childhood, but was primarily raised in Portland, Oregon, where she played in a series of short-lived bands and was active in the local punk scene. Following a brief stay in a juvenile hall, she spent a year living in Dublin and Liverpool before returning to the United States and pursuing an acting career. She appeared in supporting roles in the Alex Cox films Sid and Nancy (1986) and Straight to Hell (1987). In 1989, Love formed the alternative rock band Hole with guitarist Eric Erlandson. She was its lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist. She was becoming a rising figure in the alternative and grunge scenes of the 1990s. However, her highly publicized relationship with, and 1992 marriage to, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain followed by his death in 1994 temporarily overshadowed her music career.