The release is the clearest recent event surrounding Smith, who has been making renewed noise this month through the album, interviews and continuing live performances. The project’s release date and title were announced before August, but its arrival on streaming services and in physical formats on 2026-08-21 places it within the requested three-week news window.

An album built around intimacy

The album’s title refers to the eye color of Cowan, Smith’s fiancé. In an interview with The Guardian, Smith described the record as emerging from a period of greater health and happiness, while the publication reported that Smith moved from the United Kingdom to New York three years earlier to be with Cowan.

Smith’s lead single, “My Guy,” was released with the album campaign. Capitol Music UK announced the song alongside the album’s original announcement, identifying Hazel Eyes as Smith’s fifth album and confirming its 2026-08-21 release date.

Reviews published around release day characterized Hazel Eyes as a change in scale and mood from some of Smith’s more theatrical recent work. Variety described the album as “low-key but adventurous,” while Hot Press gave it an 8/10 rating and called Smith “in superb form.” These are critics’ assessments rather than objective measurements, but they indicate that the record has received substantial attention from music publications beyond LGBTQ+-focused media.

The album’s public framing is significant because it places queer love at the center of a mainstream pop release without presenting the relationship solely as a controversy, a coming-out narrative or a political argument. Smith’s relationship with Cowan is instead part of the album’s stated emotional premise. The Guardian reported that Smith connected the record to their relationship and that the album was released through Capitol on 2026-08-21.

Smith’s account of queer visibility

Smith came out publicly as nonbinary in 2019 and uses they/them pronouns. In the August interview with The Guardian, Smith reflected on the loneliness they experienced as a young queer artist and discussed the hostility that followed their public identity. The newspaper also reported that Smith had come out as nonbinary in 2017, reflecting the sometimes-different dates used in public accounts of Smith’s coming-out history.

A separate Apple Music interview, reported by Star News Korea, quoted Smith as saying they had always been nonbinary but only later found the language to describe that identity. The account presents Smith’s gender identity as an ongoing process of recognition and articulation rather than a single event.

That distinction matters in coverage of LGBTQ+ artists. Nonbinary people may describe their identities and coming-out experiences in different ways over time, and Smith’s comments underscore that public terminology can follow personal understanding. Smith’s own stated pronouns and identity should therefore remain the basis for reporting, rather than assumptions based on appearance, partnership or performance.

Smith has also described the act of singing about queer love as meaningful in the current political and cultural climate. LGBTQ Nation reported that Smith called singing queer love songs “something radical” in an interview connected to the album and their engagement. The statement frames the album’s romantic subject matter as both personal and culturally visible, without requiring the songs to function as slogans.

Fashion, partnership and public culture

Cowan’s involvement gives the album a direct connection to fashion as well as music. Smith and Cowan’s engagement was reported after Smith referred to Cowan as their fiancé in an interview with The New York Times, according to LGBTQ Nation and PinkNews. Those reports identify Cowan as a fashion designer and describe the album title as a reference to his eye color.

The pairing also illustrates how queer pop culture often moves across creative fields. Smith’s music, Cowan’s fashion work and the visual language surrounding Hazel Eyes intersect in a public narrative about partnership. The available reporting supports that connection, but does not establish that Cowan designed the album’s cover, costumes or broader visual campaign.

A release extending beyond the record

Hazel Eyes has also been connected to Smith’s continuing To Be Free live series. A report citing a 2026-08-21 Universal Music Canada announcement said that the album’s release coincided with a new leg involving dates in Mexico and the United Kingdom. Because the available report is secondary to the label announcement, the full schedule and all venue details should be checked against Smith’s official tour listings before publication.

The live context is important to queer audiences because Smith’s career has long connected recorded pop with performance, clothing and public conversations about gender. However, the sources reviewed for this article do not document a new ritual, club night, festival appearance or community-led event tied specifically to the Hazel Eyes release during August 2026.

For now, the most clearly documented development is the album itself: a major pop release by a nonbinary artist that makes romantic partnership its organizing subject. The record’s public reception, Smith’s interviews and its connection to fashion designer Christian Cowan place Hazel Eyes at the intersection of queer life through music, celebrity culture and fashion.

“A straight icon? What’s the straight part?” Khan said in the interview with The Observer.

When the interviewer clarified that “straight” meant heterosexual, Khan responded: “Am I? How do you know what the f--- I am?”

“I don’t ever share that part of my life,” Khan continued. “That’s nobody’s business but mine.”

Khan’s remarks do not constitute a public declaration of a specific sexual orientation, and the available reporting does not identify her with a particular LGBTQ+ label.

After the interviewer withdrew the characterization, Khan replied, “There you go,” before adding: “I am for everybody. I don’t care what you sleep with at night. If your heart is in the right place, that’s all I care about.”

A Private Answer to a Public Assumption

The exchange occurred as part of a broader Observer interview about Khan’s music, personal life and relationship with audiences.

The article framed Khan’s connection to queer audiences through “I’m Every Woman,” the 1978 song written by Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson.

The song has been part of drag and ballroom repertoires for decades, according to The Observer.

Khan also curated London’s Meltdown festival in 2024, where she programmed Adonis Afters, described by the newspaper as a queer rave, and issued a call for nonbinary choir singers.

Those details help explain why the interviewer connected Khan with queer visibility, but they do not establish Khan’s sexual orientation.

Khan instead placed the emphasis on inclusion while retaining control over what she discloses about her intimate life.

Comments on Relationships and Prince

During the same interview, Khan was asked about the personal experiences behind lyrics on her forthcoming album, Chakzilla.

“I don’t want to discuss that,” Khan said, explaining that revealing too much about what she wants could lead someone to try to arrange it for her.

She said she would “mosey along and let life do what it do,” adding that one item on her list was “not necessarily a partner.”

“I’m not looking for that,” Khan said. “I’m partnered out.”

The *Observer* reported that Khan has been married twice.

The interview also addressed recurring questions about whether Khan had a sexual relationship with Prince, with whom she collaborated and maintained a close friendship.

Khan opened that portion of the conversation by asking, “Oh God, you’re not going to ask me if I’ve slept with Prince, are you?”

She said the assumptions made about her were troubling, telling the interviewer: “It’s sad that they just assume I’m either a whore or a singer. Make up your mind! What do you want me to be?”

Khan said she was not going to “lie to you and add to your fantasy,” concluding: “This ain’t Disneyland. I’m living for real.”

The Album Behind the Interview

Chakzilla is described by The Observer as Khan’s follow-up to her 2019 album Hello Happiness.

The newspaper reported that the album was largely co-written with Australian singer and songwriter Sia and features Lenny Kravitz and Snoop Dogg.

The album was scheduled for release on September 18 through Khan’s Earthsong Records imprint, with licensing by BMG, according to the interview.

The article said the single “Curious Subject” had already been released at the time of publication.

Khan’s comments about her identity came in an interview promoting that project, but she did not present them as an album announcement or as a formal coming-out statement.

Why the Wording Matters

The central point of Khan’s response was not to substitute one label for another, but to reject the premise that the public is entitled to classify her sexuality.

Her statement leaves her sexual orientation undisclosed while affirming her connection to people across sexualities and identities.

That distinction is important because support for LGBTQ+ people, participation in queer cultural spaces and identification as LGBTQ+ are separate matters that should not be conflated without a person’s own confirmation.

Khan’s remarks therefore offer no basis for describing her as straight, bisexual, queer or any other specific identity unless she chooses to do so herself.

Instead, her stated position is that she is “for everybody” and that her private life belongs to her.

Grint, who starred in all eight “ Harry Potter ” movies from 2001 to 2011, will join the play at the Lyric Theatre from Feb. 2 to May 30, 2027.

“Ron Weasley has been a part of me since I was 11 years old and I can’t wait to meet him again in this stage of life,” Grint said in a statement. “There is something so full-circle and so special about stepping back into Ron’s shoes now when we are both fathers; it is somehow both very familiar and completely new.”

It will mark the second time a member of the “Harry Potter” film cast has joined the stage production. This year, Tom Felton reprised his role of Draco Malfoy, seeing box office receipts jump.

The play picks up 19 years after the end of the final novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” An adult Potter is married to Ginny Weasley, sister of his best friend, Ron, who married brainy Hermione. Both couples have children and all are in danger again. Ron runs his own joke shop, Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes.

“His return creates a powerful bridge between the story audiences first fell in love with and the story of family, legacy and the passage of time that ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’ carries forward,” producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender said in a statement.

Grint made his Broadway debut in the original production of “It’s Only a Play,” opposite Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. He made his West End debut in Jez Butterworth’s play “Mojo,” starring opposite Ben Whishaw.

Larger-than-life at 5-foot-nothing, the country star, actor, philanthropist, entrepreneur and theme park enthusiast who died Tuesday, transcended celebrity in rhinestones and fringe. She was embraced by fans across gender, race and class, embodying a mythology typically inaccessible to even the most influential historical figures.

It’s hard to name a more adored artist — one who could deliver a perfectly timed dirty joke seconds before a folk classic of her own composition. (This is where, if Parton were reading along, a self-deprecating quip would come in — lest anyone forget she was a whip-smart jokester, too.)

Throughout her endeavors, Parton worked to build a better world, while becoming inextricable from the American imagination. It is one of her greatest legacies: to take what you have and help someone with it.

One of the most beloved artists of all time

In 2015, when Parton returned to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, Grand Ole Opry announcer Bill Cody introduced her as “the most beloved artist of all time,” quickly amending it to “female artist.” As history has proven, he was correct the first time.

Parton’s legacy starts with the immortality of her music: songwriting as solace, an exercise in creativity and an unwavering ability to write experience into art. Across her career, Parton wrote and performed perennial hits (“Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “Little Sparrow,” take your pick) and others that took on a life of their own (most famously, “I Will Always Love You,” made immortal by Whitney Houston ).

Parton grew up in poverty, one of 12 kids in East Tennessee’s rural Sevier County, where she started writing songs as a toddler. By 10, she was on the radio and TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. By 13, she had made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry. At 21, she joined “The Porter Wagoner Show,” her star power quickly eclipsing its host.

The accomplishments — and the trials and tribulations that came with them, which she let roll off her shoulders with enviable resiliency — came fast and furious, as they do with once-in-a-lifetime talents. There are the 10 Grammys, the numerous Hall of Fame inductions, and the fact that she revolutionized the world of country music for women alongside Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, creating a path for crossover artistry. But there are also her Hollywood forays. It’s telling that her first feature film, “9 to 5,” celebrated women in the workplace and messed with their devious bosses.

One of her superpowers was rooted in a kind of irony: Everything about Dolly Parton is truly Dolly Parton or else she wouldn’t partake — down to the false eyelashes and big wigs. She built an economic empire with down-home sensibilities. If authenticity is currency in popular culture, Parton showed the world how it was done.

An honest-to-goodness iconoclast

There’s a moment in her 1983 television special, “Dolly in Concert,” where Parton calls herself “the original punk rocker.” It’s a fitting description: Armed in a uniform of high heels, acrylic nails (the better to write songs with), tight clothes and a big blond beehive, the image of Parton was enough to scandalize. Jokes about her breasts were prevalent for decades; she wielded them like a weapon.

Her first big break came in 1967 with a single, ironically titled “Dumb Blonde.” It’s a clever admonishment of a man who calls a woman stupid. It was fabulously misunderstood and misconstrued, forecasting the wonderful hypocrisy inherent in many public appreciations of Parton: She had full autonomy; make a low-brow pass at her and she’ll have the last laugh. Always.

That spirit was inherent in her business ventures as well. Too poor to travel to Disneyland as a child, Parton opened her Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, amusement park, Dollywood, in 1986. Many thought it was a bad idea; it proved to be her most lucrative business venture. It’s also, crucially, a blessing for the local economy. According to a 2021 study by the Tennessee Aviation System Plan, Dollywood brings in $1.8 billion each year.

A great unifier

Parton’s career kicked off in the transformative ’60s, perfectly aligning with the emergence of the women’s liberation movement. Though she didn’t use the word herself, much of Parton’s career — and in particular, her songwriting — has been viewed as a kind of feminism. Take the early hit, 1968’s “Just Because I’m a Woman.” Parton’s sweet soprano and idiosyncratic tremolo are on full display as she reminds her male partner that he need not judge her for having previous sexual partners because he has done the same. “My mistakes are no worse than yours,” she sings, “Just because I’m a woman.”

Or consider 1970's “Down from Dover,” a tearjerker about a pregnant teenager abandoned by her family and the child’s father. She gives birth to a stillborn baby, alone, without medical treatment. “I guess in some strange way she knew she’d never have a father’s arms to hold her,” Parton sings. “And dying was her way of telling me he wasn’t coming down from Dover.” It’s evocative then and now.

Still, across political divides, Parton is welcomed with open arms. It may have something to do with the fact that, when it came to capital-P party line, Parton valued apoliticism. During the 2016 presidential election, she said a woman would do a great job in office. When it was viewed as an endorsement of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, she said her words were taken out of context. She never said who she voted for. And she declined the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times, twice from President Donald Trump and once from President Joe Biden so as to not appear biased. As a result, she was beloved by all — even in periods of unmitigated division.

A fantastic philanthropist

With the same resolve she exhibited in her performances, Parton was dedicated to charity work.

In 1988, she launched the Dollywood Foundation, originally designed to combat high school dropout rates. Its early '90s Buddy Program paired junior high students in Sevier County and gave $500 to each if they both finished high school. In 2016, when wildfires ravaged her native Great Smoky Mountains, the foundation announced it would give $1,000 each month for six months to families who lost their homes. The following year, it was revealed the foundation’s My People Fund helped 900 families with roughly $9 million in the first six months after the fires.

In 1991, she launched a sanctuary for bald eagles that couldn't survive in the wild; in 2000, she started a college scholarship giving $15,000 to five high school seniors in Sevier County. In 2020, she donated $1 million to COVID-19 research at Vanderbilt University, which helped fund Moderna’s vaccine.

Best known is her Imagination Library, founded in 1995. Parton’s father was illiterate; it inspired her to launch an organization providing books to those without resources. By 2025, she had given away over 200 million books to children in need.

Parton was truly one of one — a generous country music heroine from the small-town South turned global phenomenon.

“I hope I’ll be remembered as somebody that tried to do some good in the world,” she told The Associated Press in 2024. “And left, you know, a few good things behind.”

Curry’s longtime agent and manager, Marcia Hurwitz, confirmed his death, according to The New York Times. A cause of death was not immediately available.

Reports from The Guardian and Deadline also identified Curry’s Los Angeles home as the location of his death. The reports said that Curry had experienced significant health problems since suffering a major stroke in 2012.

A Defining Performance in Rocky Horror

Curry became internationally known for playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Show, the stage musical created by Richard O’Brien, and in the 1975 film adaptation, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The production’s blend of science-fiction imagery, horror conventions, glam-rock aesthetics and sexual transgression helped make Curry’s performance one of the most recognizable in modern cult cinema.

As Frank-N-Furter, Curry played a charismatic scientist whose elaborate costume, unapologetic sexuality and command of the film’s musical numbers became central to the movie’s cultural afterlife. The Guardian described the role as the performance that made Curry famous, while Deadline identified it as his signature part.

The film developed a long-running participatory following, with audiences attending screenings in costume and responding aloud to the movie. Curry’s performance remained particularly significant to generations of viewers drawn to the work’s challenge to conventional gender and sexual norms. The characterization itself is a fictional role and should not be treated as a statement of Curry’s personal gender identity or sexuality.

Stage and Screen Career

Before and alongside his film work, Curry established himself as a stage performer. The New York Times highlighted his portrayal of Mozart in the original Broadway production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus. The role demonstrated the range that would define Curry’s career: he could bring flamboyance and intensity to a comic or theatrical figure while retaining the precision of a trained stage actor.

Curry also appeared in films including Clue and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. His work in Clue placed him in an ensemble built around stylized comedy and rapid-fire dialogue, while his appearance in Home Alone 2 introduced him to another large popular audience.

In 1990, Curry played Pennywise the clown in the television adaptation of King’s It. The role placed him in a markedly different performance register from Frank-N-Furter. Instead of musical theatricality and erotic camp, Curry used voice, stillness and menace to portray the supernatural antagonist confronting the story’s central group of children.

His screen work also included villainous and eccentric characters, but his career was not limited to live-action film. The coverage of his death noted his work across stage, film and television, as well as his broader status as a performer whose career extended over several decades.

Health and Later Years

Curry suffered a major stroke in 2012 and subsequently used a wheelchair, according to Deadline. The publication reported that he had faced serious health difficulties for more than a decade.

Those details provide context for the later period of Curry’s life, but they do not establish the cause of his death. No official cause was immediately released in the initial reports.

Curry continued to be associated with The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a work that has held a distinctive place in LGBTQ+ cultural history because of its celebration of sexual self-expression, gender nonconformity and outsider community. His portrayal of Frank-N-Furter contributed to that legacy, although the character is fictional and Curry’s personal identity should be described separately from the role.

A Lasting Cultural Legacy

Curry’s influence rested not only on the number of productions in which he appeared but also on the unusual clarity of his performances. Frank-N-Furter, Pennywise and his other prominent characters were visually and vocally distinctive, yet they belonged to different genres and demanded different techniques.

For LGBTQ+ audiences and allies, Rocky Horror has long been an important point of connection, particularly through communal screenings and the film’s resistance to rigid expectations about gender, desire and presentation. Curry’s work in the film helped make that resistance visible to mainstream audiences without reducing the character’s appeal to a single identity label.

At the same time, Curry’s career extended beyond one cult film. His stage work, mainstream movie appearances and horror performances established him as a versatile actor capable of moving between celebrated theatrical productions, broad comedy and psychological or supernatural horror.

Curry died as a performer whose most famous role remained continually rediscovered by new audiences. His work in The Rocky Horror Picture Show ensured that his image would remain part of a living, participatory tradition, while his performances in Amadeus, Clue, It and other productions documented a career substantially broader than any single character.

Parton was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.

Here is a roundup of notable reactions to Parton’s death and legacy:

Taylor Swift, singer-songwriter

“A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right. But because of the eternally generous way she spent her time on this earth and the countless lives she changed for the better, her legacy will be an everlasting one. ... Somehow she was true grace and true grit, all in one dazzling person. She possessed the softest heart when it came to the struggles of others, and a backbone of steel to defend her own self worth as an artist. ” — Swift said in a lengthy statement celebrating Parton's spirit, her philanthropy and her music.

Dionne Warwick, singer

“The Heavenly Father has made the decision to bring another of his children to him. Dolly a true child of God is in the best hands now.” — via statement

Paul McCartney, singer-songwriter

“Her songwriting, her singing and her philanthropy were unrivaled in the world of country music and it is hard to imagine living in a world without Dolly. She was a very clever business woman who understood the value of her music and, most importantly, the effect that she had on the people of the world. There was no greater honour for me than to have her sing my song ‘Let It Be’ and, even though I only made a small contribution to it, I am so honoured that she did it." — via Instagram.

Jane Fonda, actor and activist

"I never knew anyone like her. She was simultaneously a naughty, playful southern gal from the hollows of Tennessee and a deep, soulful thinker who could see through people right down to their true selves. She was many things … lyricist, songstress, player of many instruments, writer, prankster, visionary, loyal friend, who’d never go to bed before she and her friends had laughed so hard they’d have to cross their legs." — via Instagram.

Linda Ronstadt, singer-songwriter

“I am deeply saddened by the passing of my friend, Dolly Parton. One of the most extraordinary musical experiences of my life was recording with her. The world is a poorer place without her.” — via statement

Bette Midler, actor and singer

“Our beloved Dolly Parton has died. I am devastated, and I’m sure the nation will mourn her as I do, and for many years to come. She had a voice of pure gold and a heart to match. What a terrible, terrible loss.” — via Instagram

Kelly Clarkson, singer

“Dolly Parton had a way of making everyone feel special, and seen, and welcomed, and as if you were old friends. I will miss her heart and her voice as I am sure millions will. What an incredible gift and talent she was and still is with an amazing catalogue of art she has left behind for all of us.” — via X

Melissa Etheridge, singer-songwriter

“Words fail me today, words to describe the spirit that was Dolly. I was blessed with knowing her, just a little. We all were. I will strive the rest of my days to be as joyful and loving as she was. Her talent and gifts she gave us will live on for generations. We are a better world because she walked among us. May she live in the stars of the night and in the light of our days.” — via X

Kristin Chenoweth, actor and singer

“Like the rest of the world, I’m immediately heartbroken. I met Dolly on several occasions and she always made me feel like one of her own. She even agreed to sing with me on one of my records. My ultimate inspiration. The world has lost one of the best but I know we will never forget her because she is impossible to forget. I love you Dolly and I will ALWAYS love you." — via X.

Reese Witherspoon, actor

"Throughout my entire career, she sent me little notes of encouragement and support, telling me to be the light in people’s lives and listen to my angels. Always signed: ‘I will always love you.’ — via Instagram.

Carrie Underwood, singer-songwriter

“She’s not gone. I know exactly where she is. She was the epitome of faith, grace, talent, beauty and humor. She had a humble heart for Jesus and made everyone around her feel special. She was probably the one person on planet Earth that everyone loved and could agree on.” — via Instagram.

Nile Rodgers, musician and producer

"RIP Dolly Parton, one of the kindest and most talented artists I've ever worked with. You are one of one." — via Instagram.

Vince Gill, musician

"We are all crushed here at our house. One of the most beautiful sounds I’ve ever heard was when Dolly and I sang that last note of ‘I Will Always Love You’ the year we performed it on the CMA Awards.” — via a statement

Maggie Rogers, singer-songwriter

“One of the greatest songwriters of all time beautiful radiant butterfly human. I played with her at Newport once and I felt like my chest was on fire. I was so wildly awe struck. thank you thank you a million times, dolly.” — via Instagram

Elizabeth Banks, actor

“This is a really hard one today. Dolly Parton in show business is like the only person to aspire to be. She is the most kind, the most loving, the most talented, the most generous, the most inclusive, the most resilient, the most gritty. She was undeniably a force of nature.” — via Instagram

Kacey Musgraves, singer

“The world feels a lot less sparkly all of a sudden.” — via X

Blake Shelton, singer and judge on ‘The Voice’

“I can say with absolute certainty that we are all feeling the same heart brokenness today. I only got to spend any real time with Dolly when Gwen and I got to work with her on ‘The Voice.’ I want everyone to know that she was the EXACT person that you think she is. It was like being with the funnest, most loving, most caring and closest member of your family. Truly a loss for the entire world. We love you Dolly.” — via X

Seth MacFarlane, director and actor

“The news of Dolly Parton’s passing is devastating. I had the extraordinary experience of working with her on ‘The Orville,’ and it was a joy to discover that she really was exactly the person we all hoped she was. Her kindness, generosity, and authenticity were evident from moment one, and the benign yet assured command she maintained over her empire was obvious from the genuine love and trust you could see from everyone who worked for her. The world is a dimmer place today without her.” — via X

Reba McEntire, singer and actor

“Well, I just got the news that my buddy Dolly passed onto the higher and greater side. Dolly, thank you for all the wonderful things you did for us here on earth. Your love, your music and you gave so much with your huge huge heart. There will never ever be another you.” — via X

Colman Domingo, actor

“Dolly taught us that you can be anything and do anything and to do it with kindness. What a light. We are all grateful that we lived in a time of Dolly Parton. We will always love her.” — via X

Ken Burns, filmmaker behind the “Country Music” documentary miniseries

“One of twelve children raised in a cabin, Dolly Parton left home carrying nothing but songs to become the most beloved figure in American music. She wrote ‘I Will Always Love You’ as a goodbye to Porter Wagoner. Today it belongs to all of us.” — via X

Those interviews captured a Parton who could be funny and self-deprecating but also clear-eyed about who she was and what she wanted.

Here is Parton, who died Tuesday at age 80, in her own words, as compiled by AP Music Writer Maria Sherman:

Parton knew she would be famous before Hollywood came calling

“I never thought of myself as a movie star. I knew I’d be a star, but as a singer or as a writer of songs or books or poetry. I wanted to be a famous performer and wear flashy clothes, but singing in movies was not one of my ambitions. My family lived in the mountains and we didn’t see movies."

“I can’t act a part, but if they allow me to be myself, then I can handle it. If they find me a story that allows me to be me, then I’m interested; if they don’t, I’m not.” (July 1979)

On kissing President Jimmy Carter at the White House

“My husband wants a picture of this, too.” (October 1979)

Critical in her self-review of her performance in ‘9 to 5’

“In places I was real good. In places I was real average and in others I was … (sticking out her tongue). All in all, for the first time out, I was proud of it." (December 1980)

Parton worried ‘The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas’ would offend her preacher grandfather

“I’ll admit I had some misgivings about the title of the movie. After all, my granddaddy was a preacher, and I’m a spiritual person myself. I didn’t want to do anything that might be considered offensive. Then I saw the play and I realized it was just a foot-stompin’ good time.” (December 1981)

Parton saw Dollywood as a way to let Appalachia tell its own story

“It’s something I want to take pride in, to preserve the Smoky Mountain heritage rather than have Hollywood portray us as they often do.” (July 1985)

On husband Carl Dean and happiness

“It was love at first sight. I see people who turn my head all the time. It’s just that nobody’s turned my head around as much as him.” (May 1992)

On singing with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt

“We do love to sing. Your whole life you wait to find those compatible voices. It’s like making love. ... I get off on it. I do. I get so thrilled. When it buzzes, it is good. It’s just like sex in that way. Don’t fight it.” (March 1999)

On Elvis’ legacy in eastern Tennessee

“I don’t think he will ever die down. He’s considered by many to be like a religious figure, like Jesus. … I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s there, and it’s real, and people love it.” (August 2002)

Why she never wanted to retire

“I’ll be like Bob Hope, touring when I’m 100. I love being busy. ... I will never retire. I hope to fall dead in the middle of some great event or some great song I’m singing. Then they’ll say, ‘Oh well, she went happy and doing what she loves.’” (April 2004)

On her award show performance after Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's Super Bowl show

“There’s not going to be no wardrobe malfunction this evening. There’s not supposed to be, it’s not planned. But as tight as my clothes are there’s no telling what will happen. If it does happen, I’m going to wipe out the first three rows.” (April 2004)

Her label, Dolly Records, was an investment in herself

“I’m looking at it like an investment. I thought, ‘I’ve made enough money. I can afford to invest a little in myself.’” (March 2008)

On receiving her honorary doctorate

“Just think, I am Dr. Dolly! So when people say something about ‘Double-D,’ they will be thinking of something entirely different.” (May 2009)

Looking back on 25 years of Dollywood

“I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, that I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area. Sure enough, I was lucky, and God was good to me and things happened good.” (April 2010)

On being proud of Miley Cyrus

“I’m her fairy godmother. … I’m just real proud of her. She does not need my advice, but she’s often asking for information and advice, and I tell her what I know, but I think the girl’s doing all right without me.” (July 2010)

People thought Whitney Houston wrote one of her most famous songs

“People always tell me, ‘I thought that was Whitney’s song. I didn’t know you wrote it. I thought she wrote it.’ And I tell them, ‘She can have the credit. I’ll just take the cash.’” (December 2018)

On her charity work

“I don’t do it for attention. But look! I’m getting a lot of attention by doing it. ... I just give from my heart. I never know what I’m going to do or why I’m gonna do it. I just see a need and if I can fill it, then I will.” (October 2022)

On taking to rock music like ‘a duck on a June bug’

“I just didn’t think that I had done enough in the rock world to be considered, to be put in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame when there were so many great rock artists that are not even in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. ... They were going to put me in anyway, so I just accepted it gracefully. But I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to have to earn my keep.' … I jumped on that like a duck on a June bug.” (November 2023)

On her family album and legacy

“My grandpa used to say, when I got famous, he said, ‘Well, she came out crying in the key of D.’ I think we all did.”

“I hope that a lot of my songs may last that long. And I hope I’ll be remembered as somebody that tried to do some good in the world and left, you know, a few good things.” (November 2024)

On leaning into faith after losing husband Carl Dean and being a superstar

“I am a person of faith, and I truly believe that I’m going to see him again someday. And I see him every day in my memories and in my heart, and in all the things that we used to do and all the things that we’ve built together. You just kind of have to learn to kind of make new plans — but that’s the hardest part.”

“I don’t think about my life in terms of ‘superstar.’ I’m just a workin’ girl. I always say — and it’s the truth — that I am a workhorse that looks like a show horse. But I gotta keep it all up and I enjoy all of it. My husband always said, ‘If anybody was ever born to be a star, it’s you.’” (May 2025)

Selecting 11 songs across her many decades of recorded music is a fool’s errand, but there are some classics that stand above others. Here are a few across her discography — from country songs that challenge traditional gender dynamics to the greatest ballad ever committed to record. Listen to all of the tracks on our Spotify playlist.

1968: “Just Because I’m a Woman”

Parton was long celebrated for the feminist themes throughout her music. That progressive sociopolitical stance is evident from the beginning of her career, which overlapped with the emergence of the women’s liberation movement. On the country classic “Just Because I’m a Woman,” Parton’s protagonist reminds her partner he need not judge her for having previous sexual partners — after all, he's had some, too. “My mistakes are no worse than yours,” she sings, “Just because I’m a woman.” She said the song was inspired by a conversation with her late husband, Carl Dean, who asked her if she’d been with any men before they met.

1971: “Coat of Many Colors”

The quintessential example of Parton the raconteur is “Coat of Many Colors.” It’s an autobiographical tale about her mother, who made a coat for Parton out of rags. She was mocked by other kids but understood its value. “Now I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be,” she sings, “In my coat of many colors my momma made for me.”

1973: “Jolene”

It is not only one of Parton’s best-known hits, but also one of the best-known country music songs of all time. “Jolene” was inspired by Dean; Parton told NPR in 2008 that she wrote the song about a flirty bank teller who seemed to take an interest in him.

“She got this terrible crush on my husband,” she said. “And he just loved going to the bank because she paid him so much attention. It was kinda like a running joke between us — when I was saying, ‘Hell, you’re spending a lot of time at the bank. I don’t believe we’ve got that kind of money.’ So, it’s really an innocent song all around, but sounds like a dreadful one.”

1974: “I Will Always Love You”

The second single from Parton’s 13th studio album, “I Will Always Love You” is most known for its rendition by Whitney Houston. But the Parton original was written for Porter Wagoner ahead of her departure from “The Porter Wagoner Show.” (She left in 1974, having collaborated with him since 1967.) There have been several versions, but none as resonant as Houston’s, recorded in 1992 for the soundtrack to “The Bodyguard.” The song topped the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, where it stayed for a then-record-breaking 14 weeks.

1977: “Here You Come Again”

Parton wrote an overwhelming number of her hits, which makes “Here You Come Again” an interesting outlier. It was penned by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, first recorded by B.J. Thomas and originally conceived with the idea that Brenda Lee would record it. The song made its way to Parton and became a tentpole pop crossover hit for the country artist. But make no mistake — Parton made sure the steel guitar was heard loud and proud.

1980: “9 to 5”

Enter Parton, the Hollywood star. It begins with the sound of a typewriter. (That clacking sound? Parton originally conceived of it by striking her long acrylic nails together.) The ebullient “9 to 5” was written for the 1980 film of the same name, which starred Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Parton in her acting debut. The song also appears on her album “9 to 5 and Odd Jobs.” Lyrically, it celebrates women in the workplace and serves as a battle cry for pay equity; it earned Parton her first Oscar nomination.

1983: “Islands in the Stream,” with Kenny Rogers

By the 1980s, Parton had fashioned herself as a mainstream celebrity. On “Islands in the Stream” with Kenny Rogers, her clarion soprano makes for perfect harmonies. That shouldn’t come as any surprise, but perhaps this will: The song was written by the Bee Gees. Barry Gibb maintained it was meant for Diana Ross, while Robin Gibb said it was meant for Marvin Gaye. Whatever the case, it got to Parton and Rogers, and the rest is history. It's also a reminder of how R&B and country music are inextricably linked.

1989: “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That”

Before this triumphant return to capital-C country music, there was a deeper detour into ’80s drum machine-heavy pop. (If there's a single Parton album to consider skipping, it is 1987’s “Rainbow.”) But what came after, 1989’s “White Limozeen,” should be celebrated for “Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That,” with its steel guitar, banjo, mandolins, Pedabro and a fierce fiddle courtesy of Ricky Skaggs — all while Parton playfully objectifies a man with a cheeky wink.

1999: “The Grass Is Blue”

“I’ve had to think up a way to survive,” Parton opens the title track to her 1999 album “The Grass Is Blue.” She said she wrote the bluegrass ballad in 30 minutes, during a lunch break while filming “Blue Valley Songbird,” a made-for-television musical drama about a woman who tries to leave an abusive partner. It features her scratch vocals — a demo meant to serve as a blueprint for the final recording — providing an additional rawness to a song of impossible pain. “And the sky is green / and the grass is blue,” she sings. “And I don’t love you.”

2001: “Little Sparrow”

If there is anything resembling a dip in Parton’s overwhelming popularity, it arrived in the ’90s, when country listeners instead embraced the glossy pop-country of Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes. A pivot arrived at the end of that decade and into the one that followed, when Parton endeavored to make roots albums — pulling from bluegrass, country, gospel and Appalachian folk — that reinvigorated her music career. The heartbreaking a cappella harmonies of the title track on her 2001 album “Little Sparrow,” released one year after the death of her father and dedicated to him, are further evidence of her greatness. Parton’s is a voice that knows no bounds. But to remind people of that fact? Sometimes it takes going back home.

2014: “Blue Smoke”

No one writes place like Parton. On “Blue Smoke,” with its youthful choo-choo spirit, Parton brings the listener into her childhood home in the Blue Ridge Mountains, gorgeous, desolate and nostalgic. “Blue Smoke climbin’ up the mountain, Blue Smoke windin’ ’round the bend / Blue Smoke is the name of the heartbreak train that I am ridin’ in,” she sings. “I left a note, I wrote, ‘I’m leaving and I won’t be coming back’ / Blue Smoke rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling down the track.”

“After bravely facing a brief battle with cancer, Dolly departed her Earthly life today at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center surrounded by loved ones,” her publicist, Marcel Pariseau, said in a statement Tuesday.

Known for her curvy physique, massive blond wigs and skin-tight outfits that served her self-deprecating wit, she was among the most beloved personalities in music and beyond — the rare celebrity whose appeal transcended generations, geography and politics.

She wrote hundreds of songs, including classics like “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors” and “I Will Always Love You,” that totaled more than 100 million worldwide sales and more than 1 billion online streams. Parton, who plucked bejeweled banjos, guitar and dulcimers with her long fingernails during performances, was a generous philanthropist and successful businesswoman whose projects included a theme park in the Smoky Mountain foothills near her birthplace.

Her career was forever influenced by her upbringing as one of 12 children born into what she called a “dirt poor” Tennessee family. She started her education nonprofit, Imagination Library, to send free books to children in Tennessee because her father, who quit school to work on the farm, struggled to learn to read.

Parton's first musical performances were in church, where her grandfather was a preacher. By age 10, she was learning guitar and singing on local television shows. At 13, she appeared on the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, where Johnny Cash introduced her as “a little girl here from up in East Tennessee.”

With a suitcase of songs, she followed her uncle, Bill Owens, also a songwriter, to Nashville after graduating high school in 1964. Fred Foster, who produced Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson and more, saw her potential and got her songs cut by other artists, as well as recording and releasing Parton singing her own material. By the mid-1970s, Parton was a Nashville queen.

A key collaboration launched Parton to fame

Parton's partnership with Porter Wagoner, a pencil-thin pompadoured star with flashy rhinestone outfits, was key to her career. She honed her acting skills on his syndicated TV show and he advocated for her to get a record deal at RCA. Their first duet, “The Last Thing On My Mind,” was released in 1967, the same year she started her own publishing company.

While their duets were often big radio hits, Parton's solo singles didn’t chart as high at first. With Wagoner as a co-producer, she began to adjust her country warble to a more polished, pop-leaning style.

She got her first No. 1 solo single with “Joshua,” and reached the Top 5 with the ballad “Coat of Many Colors,” about how her mother sewed together scraps of clothes to make a coat Parton wore “so proudly” even as her peers mocked her for being poor. The song, with its Biblical references and ode to maternal love, was later made into a children’s book and a TV movie.

In 1973, she had the hit that made her career — “Jolene,” a country music standard with its steady, churning rhythm and Parton's repeated delivery of the title as she pleads for the woman not to steal her man.

The song topped the country charts, crossing over to pop and later being released internationally, opening up new audiences for Parton. “Jolene” is one of her most covered compositions, including by Miley Cyrus (Parton’s goddaughter), Olivia Newton-John and The White Stripes.

She left Wagoner’s show in 1974, amid reports of squabbling between the two, although they continued to record together and Wagoner stayed her producer for years after that. But the relationship turned litigious when Wagoner sued her in 1979 for millions in management fees and royalties.

A push into pop music brought her first Grammy

She followed “Jolene” with a huge hit in 1974, “I Will Always Love You,” an ode and farewell to Wagoner that helped her win the Country Music Association’s female vocalist of the year back-to-back in 1975 and 1976. She famously turned down Elvis Presley, who wanted to record it, because she would not share publishing rights.

Decades later, Whitney Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You” became a smash for the soundtrack of her 1992 film “The Bodyguard,” and broke sales records. Houston won a Grammy for her performance in 1994, presented to her by Parton.

“Here You Come Again,” a pop crossover hit and one of the few she didn’t write, further established Parton as a multi-genre entertainer and brought her first Grammy Award in 1979.

“A lot of people thought I had totally lost my mind,” she told The Associated Press in 1979 of changing her singing style. “But I had no fear of change. I expected success, but I was braced for failure. I didn’t care if people thought I was wrong. In my own heart, I knew I was doing the right thing.”

Parton's other crossover hits included the title song from “9 to 5,” the 1980 comedy starring Parton, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin; and her duet with longtime friend Kenny Rogers, “Islands in the Stream,” written by brothers Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees. In 1987, she collaborated with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on the million-selling “Trio” album.

Rhinestones and wicked humor helped her cut a unique figure

For millions of fans, she was simply “Dolly,” a mixture of Southern charm, humor and glamour. But she was also considered a feminist role model for holding the reins of her own career, writing her own songs, owning her content and looking after her finances in an entertainment world dominated by men.

Parton was open to making fun of herself; when she hosted “Saturday Night Live” in 1989 she told the writers that her only restrictions were she wouldn’t curse and she wouldn’t make fun of Jesus. She regularly joked about her breasts or her dumb blonde appearance, but with a wink that she was the one controlling the laughs. In the memoir “My Life So Far,” Fonda remembered Parton's way with a wisecrack, “usually high raunch,” and a laugh that was “somewhere between a girl's giggle, an explosive shriek, and a cascade of little bells."

After her gown split down the front when she won CMA's entertainer of the year in 1978, Parton quipped: “My Daddy said that's what I got for putting 50 pounds of mud in a five-pound bag.”

Throughout her career, she embraced a glamorous style, often wearing custom curve-hugging rhinestone dresses and bodysuits even if they drew tsk-tsks from others in the industry. Her look was always a part of her larger musical business plan.

“I knew my songs were good even if I had been ugly as sin,” she told the AP in 2014. “So I thought, ‘Well, I would have probably chose to look this way even if I had been a waitress.’ I mean, this is my look. I mean, I like a lot of makeup. I like a lot of hair. I like flashy clothes. I like to show it off. But that’s just who I am.”

She married Carl Dean, an asphalt paving contractor, in the mid-1960s; they were together until his death in 2025 at the age of 82. Though rarely seen in public, he was an influence on her career. She told NPR that she wrote “Jolene” about a flirty bank teller who seemed to take an interest in Dean.

‘9 to 5’ took her to Hollywood, and then Broadway

In her first major film role, Parton played alongside Fonda and Tomlin as office workers who rebel against their tyrannical boss in “9 to 5.” Critic Roger Ebert called her a “natural-born movie star” and the title song earned her two Grammy Awards and a ranking of 78 on the American Film Institute's list of top 100 movie songs. Starring roles in “The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas” and “Steel Magnolias” followed.

"I never thought of myself as a movie star," she told AP’s Bob Thomas in 1979. "I knew I'd be a star, but as a singer or as a writer of songs or books or poetry. I wanted to be a famous performer and wear flashy clothes, but singing in movies was not one of my ambitions. My family lived in the mountains and we didn't see movies.”

Her love affair with TV and film continued for decades, with appearances alongside Cyrus on “Hannah Montana” and adaptations of her music for Christmas specials, films and streaming series. She also became an author, her books ranging from the memoir “Dolly” to a bestselling novel co-authored by James Patterson, “Run, Rose, Run."

The stage adaptation “9 to 5: The Musical” debuted in 2009, and “DOLLY: A True Original Musical” is set to open Jan. 19, 2027, on what would have been her 81st birthday.

She presided over a United States of Dolly

Beyond her music, Parton’s most lasting legacy might be her generosity and broad appeal.

When a deadly wildfire swept through the Smokies in 2016, she held an all-star telethon and set up a foundation that sent monthly checks to residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed.

She opened up her Dollywood theme park in East Tennessee, a major economic driver in Appalachia that draws tourists from around the country, and established the Dollywood Foundation. She wrote books and memoirs, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and was given a lifetime achievement award by the Recording Academy. She was selected for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2025.

With 55 Grammy nominations and 10 wins, Parton is the third-most nominated woman in Grammy history, only behind Beyoncé and Taylor Swift.

Parton spanned social and political divides, through multiple generations of fans, urban and rural and in between. In tumultuous election years, it wasn't uncommon to see “Dolly for President” shirts. But she was strict in not voicing her own political beliefs, often turning aside questions about presidents, candidates, policies and other controversies.

“I don’t do politics," Parton told host Jad Abumrad on his hit podcast “Dolly Parton's America."

"I have too many fans on both sides of the fence. Of course, I have my opinion about everything, but I learned years ago to keep your mouth shut about things.”

When the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation sent out a ballot in 2022 with her name on it, though she said she felt she hadn't earned it, the voters answered with a “Hello, Dolly." Parton showed up to the induction ceremony, performed and then put out a rock album.