If you have been following the news in the last week or so, the names Macy Gray and Bette Midler are likely to cross into your orbit. The two showbiz superstars have come under fire for comments that they made about trans people.
Actress Midler wrote her controversial opinions on her Twitter account. Gray spoke out of turn while featuring on Piers Morgan Uncensored, a talk show that the British TV personality has been hosting since he quit his last job on Good Morning Britain.
This is not the first time that a popular celebrity has fallen foul of the trans community, with Dave Chappelle, JK Rowling, and even Caitlyn Jenner herself, saying things that were deemed offensive by transgender people.
While Gray is only now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, she has actually enjoyed a more positive career and personal life over the years.
8 Who Is Macy Gray, And What Does She Do?
Macy Gray is an R’n’B and soul musician who hails from Canton city in the state of Ohio. She was born Natalie Renée McIntyre in September 1967, but adopted her more popular moniker as her brand name for her singing career.
She adopted the name Macy Gray from the mailbox of a man who was called exactly that, and she eventually decided to use it as her stage name.
7 Inside Macy Gray’s Music Career
Macy Gray is about two months shy of her 55th birthday. She started working as a professional musician in the late ‘90s, which essentially means that she has been doing it for at least half of her life.
In that time, Gray has managed to put out a total of ten studio albums, the last of which was titled Ruby, and released in 2018.
6 How Many Grammys Has Macy Gray Won?
A Grammy Award is arguably the greatest accolade that a musician can win anywhere across the world. Macy Gray has been nominated five times for a Grammy Award, although each of those nominations came in 2000 and 2001.
In the latter event, she won the Grammy for “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance”, for her most popular song to date, I Try.
5 Macy Gray Is Also An Actress
On top of her singing career, Macy Gray has also worked as an actress in multiple films and television series in Hollywood. She first appeared in an acting role in 2001, alongside Denzel Washington in the classic action thriller, Training Day.
Gray has gone on to feature in movies like Gang of Roses and The Paperboy, as well as TV shows such as Ally McBeal and That’s So Raven. She has also been a contestant on Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer Australia.
4 Is Macy Gray Married?
Before Macy Gray had her big break in music, she fell in love with a mortgage broker called Tracy Hinds, and they got married. By this time, she had already left her native Canton and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her singing and career. Gray and Hinds have three children together, named Aanisah, Mel, and Happy.
Their marriage did not last, however, as they got divorced in 1998. Since then, Gray has not remarried, neither has she been in any publicly recognized romantic relationship.
3 What Is Macy Gray Up To Now?
Macy Gray’s most recent major public endeavor was her stint on Season 3 of The Masked Singer Australia in 2021. Going by the stage name Atlantis, she finished seventh in a season that was ultimately won by fellow musician Anastacia.
Still in 2021, Gray featured in episodes of Big City Greens and The Real Housewives of Potomac. The singer is also currently scheduled for a European tour in October, spanning across Poland, Spain, Italy, Austria and Hungary.
2 Is Macy Gray On Social Media?
Macy Gray has fully embraced the power of social media in this day and age, and she uses various platforms to promote her work and stay in touch with her fans. The singer is not only on Instagram and Twitter, she can also be found sharing snippets of her life on TikTok, where she has nearly 200,000 followers.
Following the backlash over her anti-trans comments, Gray in fact took to Twitter and Instagram to defend herself. “All of you coming on my page, threatening me and calling me names - just becuz I said something you don’t agree with - be whatever you wana be, and fk off,” she wrote.
1 Macy Gray Has Since Apologized For Her Comments
In an appearance on NBC’s Today with Hoda Kotb, Macy Gray finally owned up to the error of her ways, and offered up an apology, saying that she had ‘learned a lot through this.’
“I never meant to hurt anybody. I think it takes a lot of courage to be yourself,” she said. “I feel bad that I did hurt some people and I think it’s about education, conversation and us getting to a place where we understand each other.”
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