Pink
Pink
Background information
Birth name	Alecia Beth Moore
Born	(1979-09-08) September 8, 1979 (age 32) Doylestown, Pennsylvania, United States
Origin	Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Genres	Pop rock, pop, rock, R&B, dance
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, dancer, actress
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1995–present
Labels	LaFace, Arista, Jive, RCA

Alecia Beth Moore (born September 8, 1979), better known by her stage name Pink (often stylized as P!nk), is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress. After her three-year career with the contemporary R&B girl group Choice, in 2000 she released her first single "There You Go," from her debut album Can't Take Me Home. The song garnered commercial success, peaking at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2001, she released her second, more pop rock-oriented, studio album, Missundaztood. The album went on to become a critical and commercial success, with estimated sales of 13 million. The album produced four singles, "Get the Party Started," "Don't Let Me Get Me," "Just Like a Pill" and "Family Portrait," each entering the Top 20, with "Get the Party Started" being her highest charting solo single (tied with "Most Girls") until "So What" in 2008, peaking at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In November 2003, Pink released her third album Try This. The album was, commercially, less successful than her previous album, but still managed to sell around 3 million copies, making it Pink's least successful album to date. It produced three singles, "Trouble," "God Is a DJ" and "Last to Know," with the first receiving a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. After taking a short break, she released I'm Not Dead, her fourth studio album, on April 4, 2006. It marks her comeback after the poor success of her previous album. The album debuted and peaked at #6 on the Billboard 200, Pink's highest debut on the chart. It was preceded by the controversial single "Stupid Girls" which garnered commercial success. The second single, "Who Knew," was virtually ignored on American radio, but after the huge success of "U + Ur Hand," was re-released, peaking at #9 on the charts. "U + Ur Hand" is credited to have revived Pink's career in the US, and also to have brought the album back to the charts. Her fifth album, Funhouse, was released in late October 2008. It was preceded by her first solo number one on the Billboard Hot 100, "So What." The album notched three other Top 20 hits: "Sober," "Please Don't Leave Me" and "Glitter in the Air." On November 15, 2010, she released her first compilation album, Greatest Hits... So Far!!!. The album produced two singles, "Raise Your Glass" and "Fuckin' Perfect," the former reaching the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. In January 2012, Nielsen Soundscan reported that P!nk was the 4th most played artist of 2011.^[1]

By the end of 2009, Billboard magazine named Pink the number one Pop Artist of the decade,^[2] as well as naming her the 13th overall music artist of the decade.^[3] A few months later, in June 2010, Forbes magazine named Pink the 27th most powerful celebrity in the world.^[4] Pink's career accomplishments include three Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards and two Brit Awards. In June 2011 Pink and her husband, Carey Hart, welcomed their first child, Willow Sage. As of January 2012, Pink has sold over 40 million albums and 70 million singles worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time.^[5]

Early life[link]

Pink was born on September 8, 1979, in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, to Judith,^[6] a nurse, and Jim Moore, a Vietnam veteran.^[7][8] Her father is Catholic and her mother is Jewish, and she has ancestors who emigrated from Ireland, Germany, and Lithuania.^[9] Pink grew up in Doylestown, where she attended Doyle Elementary School, Lenape Middle School, and Central Bucks High School West. Her father played guitar and sang songs, thus inspiring Pink from an early age to be a rock star. In high school, Moore joined her first band, Middleground, but the band folded upon losing a battle of the bands competition. Pink developed her voice early in life. Although a healthy baby at birth, she quickly developed asthma that plagued her through her early years.^[10] When she was a teenager, she wrote lyrics as an outlet for her feelings, and her mother commented, "Her initial writings were always very introspective. Some of it was very black, and very deep, almost worrisome."^[10] She began performing in Philadelphia clubs when she was 14 years old. Pink said, "I was extreme. I went through phases from skateboarder, to hip-hopper, to rave child, to lead singer in a rock band. I did it all, and all at the same time." At 16, together with two other teenage girls, Stephanie Galligan and Chrissy Conway, she formed the R&B group Choice. They landed a deal with L.A. Reid and worked with various producers for two years, never releasing a record, before Reid persuaded Moore to go solo. Her stage name "P!nk" was a nickname of hers when she was singing in Philadelphia clubs as a teen.^[11]

Music career[link]

[edit] 1995–2000: Career beginnings and Can't Take Me Home

In 1995, Alecia Moore joined Choice, an American R&B girl group, which also included Chrissy Conway and Sharon Flanagan. A copy of their first song, "Key to My Heart," was sent to LaFace Records in Atlanta, Georgia, where L.A. Reid overheard it and arranged for the group to fly there so he could see them perform. After this, he signed them to a record deal. As the three girls were under 18 at the time, their parents had to co-sign the contract. The group relocated to Atlanta and recorded an album, which was never released, and "Key to My Heart" appeared on the Kazaam soundtrack for the 1996 film of the same name. The group disbanded in 1998.

After the disbandment of Choice, Pink started working on her debut album, Can't Take Me Home. It was released on April 4, 2000, with some copies being released in the UK in early 1999, and was produced by Babyface, Terence "Tramp-Baby" Abney, She'ksphere, Dallas Austin, The Specialists, and Steve Rhythm. The album sold more than 5 million copies worldwide, and was certified double platinum in the U.S. It produced two top ten singles, "There You Go" and "Most Girls." The album's third single, "You Make Me Sick" hit the top 40 in the U.S. and the top 10 in the U.K. It was also featured in the film Save the Last Dance. The song "Split Personality" was featured in the film The Princess Diaries.

Pink was the opening act for 'N Sync on their American tour in the summer of 2000.^[12]

[edit] 2001–05: Missundaztood and Try This

In 2001, she was a part of "Lady Marmalade" alongside singers Christina Aguilera, Mýa, and rapper Lil' Kim for the soundtrack of the film Moulin Rouge!. Produced by hip-hop producers Rockwilder and Missy Elliott, the song topped the charts in countries including New Zealand, the UK, Australia and the U.S., where it became the most successful airplay-only single in history, and also became Pink's first number one single.^[13] The success of the single was helped by its music video, which was popular on music channels^[14] and won the MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year.^[15] The song won Pink's first Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals, and provided a boost for the four performers' careers.^[16] In a VH1 interview, Pink stated she had to fight with Christina Aguilera's manager to sing the high parts in the song.

Tired of being marketed as another cookie cutter pop act and eager to be seen as a more serious songwriter and musician, and to perform the type of music she wanted to, Pink took her sound in a new direction and sought more artistic or creative control during the recording of her second album, M!ssundaztood.^[17] She recruited Linda Perry, former singer of 4 Non Blondes (one of Pink's favorites in her teenage years), who said Pink opened up to her: "In the beginning I just said: 'What do you feel?', and she (Pink) would just sit behind the piano and sing."^[16] Pink moved into Perry's Los Angeles home where the pair spent several months writing songs for the album.^[18] Perry co-wrote and co-produced the album with Dallas Austin and Scott Storch, and according to VH1 Driven, Antonio "LA" Reid of LaFace Records was not initially content with the new music Pink was making.^[16] The album, named Missundaztood because of Pink's belief that people had a wrong image of her,^[19] was released in November 2001.

Its lead single, "Get the Party Started" (written and produced by Perry), went top five in the U.S. and many other countries, and number one in Australia. At the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards, the music video won in the categories of Best Female Video and Best Dance Video. The album's other singles—"Don't Let Me Get Me," the Dallas Austin-produced "Just like a Pill," and "Family Portrait"—were also radio and chart successes, with "Just like a Pill" becoming Pink's first solo UK number-one hit. The singles were substantial hits on Adult Top 40 radio. "Missundaztood" was certified gold or platinum status in more than 20 countries,^[20] with worldwide sales of 12 million.^[21] It was the second best-selling album in the UK during 2002. "Missundaztood" and "Get the Party Started" earned nominations at the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, respectively. Faith Hill's 2002 album, Cry, features a song co-written by Pink and Perry. In 2002, Pink started a headlining American, European and Australian tour, the Party Tour; later, she became a supporting act for Lenny Kravitz's American tour. In mid-2003, Pink contributed the song "Feel Good Time" to the soundtrack of the film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, in which she had a cameo appearance as a motocross race ramp owner/promoter. "Feel Good Time" was co-written by singer Beck, produced by electronic music artist William Orbit and based on the song "Fresh Garbage" by the band Spirit. It became Pink's first single to miss the top 40 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, although it was a hit in Europe and Australia. During the same period, a song Pink co-wrote with Damon Elliott was released on Mýa's album Moodring.

"Feel Good Time" was included on non-U.S. editions of Pink's third album Try This, which was released on November 11, 2003. Eight of the 13 tracks were co-written with Tim Armstrong of the band Rancid; Linda Perry was featured on the album as a writer and musician. Though Try This reached the top ten on album charts in the U.S., Canada, the UK and Australia, sales were considerably lower than those of Missundaztood; it went platinum in the U.S. and sold over 5 million copies worldwide.^[22] The singles "Trouble" and "God Is a DJ" did not reach the U.S. top 40 but went top ten in other countries, and "Last to Know" was released as a single outside North America. "Trouble" earned Pink her second Grammy Award (for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance) at the 2004 Grammy Awards, and "Feel Good Time" was nominated in the category of Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals. She toured extensively on the Try This Tour through Europe and Australia, where the album was better received.

[edit] 2005–09: I'm Not Dead and Funhouse

In 2005, she collaborated with Lisa Marie Presley on the track "Shine" on Presley's second album Now What. Pink took a break to write the songs for her fourth album, I'm Not Dead, which she said she titled as such because "It's about being alive and feisty and not sitting down and shutting up even though people would like you to."^[23] Pink worked with producers Max Martin, Billy Mann, Christopher Rojas, Butch Walker, Lukasz Gottwald, and Josh Abraham on the album. The album's release in April 2006 through LaFace Records was a substantial success throughout the world, particularly in Australia. The album reached the top ten in the U.S., the top five in the UK, number one in Germany, and sat at number one in Australia for two non-consecutive weeks,^[24] though it was Pink's lowest seller in the U.S. until the success of the single "U + Ur Hand" in early 2007. The album ranked 96th in the USA during 2007.^[25]

Lead single "Stupid Girls" was Pink's biggest U.S. hit since 2002 and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Its music video, in which she parodies celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Jessica Simpson, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Paris Hilton,^[26] won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop Video. Subsequent singles "Who Knew" and "U + Ur Hand" were substantial hits in Australia and Europe, and they later became top ten singles in the U.S. in 2007. The non-U.S. singles were "Nobody Knows," a minor hit in the UK, Australia and Germany; "Dear Mr. President," an open letter to the U.S. President George W. Bush (featuring the Indigo Girls) and a number 1 hit in Belgium, a top five hit in Germany, Australia and other countries; "Leave Me Alone (I'm Lonely)," a UK top 40 and Australian top five entry; and "'Cuz I Can." The album has sold over 1.3 million copies in the U.S., over 700,000 in Australia, and 6 million worldwide. Proving very popular in Australia, with 6 top five singles, and a record-breaking 62 weeks in the top 10; so far the album has gone 10 times platinum. In June 2008, the I'm Not Dead album returned to the top 50 of the Australian ARIA charts and remained there until November 2009.^[27] In June 2009 the album returned once again to the Australian top ten album charts in its 142nd week in the national top fifty.^[27] It re-entered at No. 10 on the back of her mammoth Funhouse Tour, and as of 2010, has spent 162 weeks in the top 50 of the Australian ARIA albums chart.^[27]

Pink performing on the I'm Not Dead summer tour in 2007

In support of the album, Pink embarked on the world I'm Not Dead Tour, for which ticket sales in Australia were particularly high; she sold approximately 307,000 tickets in Australia, giving her the record for the biggest concert attendance for an arena tour by a female artist.^[28] One of the London shows on the tour was taped and released as a DVD, Pink: Live from Wembley Arena where she sang Linda Perry's "Whats Up?." In 2006, Pink was chosen to sing the theme song for NBC Sunday Night Football, "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night," which is a take on "I Hate Myself for Lovin' You" by Joan Jett. She contributed a cover of Rufus's "Tell Me Something Good" to the soundtrack of the film Happy Feet, and lent her name to PlayStation to promote the PSP, a special pink edition of which was released.^[29] Pink collaborated with several other artists in 2006 and 2007, when she opened for Justin Timberlake on the American leg of his FutureSex/LoveShow Tour. She sang on the Indigo Girls album Despite Our Differences. She was featured on India.Arie's song "I Am Not My Hair" from the Lifetime Television film Why I Wore Lipstick to My Mastectomy. She wrote a song ("I Will") for Natalia's third album, Everything & More. "Outside of You," another song she co-wrote, was recorded by dance-pop singer Hilary Duff and released on her 2007 album Dignity. Pink recorded a song with Annie Lennox and twenty-two other female acts for Lennox's fourth solo studio album, Songs of Mass Destruction. Titled "Sing," it was written as an anthem for HIV/AIDS, according to Lennox's website.^[30] In December 2007, a special edition Pink Box, which comprises her second to fourth albums and the DVD Live in Europe, was released in Australia. It reached the top twenty on the albums chart and was certified Gold, selling over 35,000 units.^[31]

Pink performing at a secret London gig to promote the Funhouse album, on November 4, 2008

On August 7, 2008, Pink's single "So What" was leaked online, and radio stations across Australia were quick to give it massive airplay. Within less than 6 hours from the leak, "So What" was voted No.1 on Nova 100 Melbourne and shot to No.1 on the Today Network's national radio Hot30 Countdown.^[32] It also shot straight to number 1 on the official Australian and British iTunes single downloads charts. On August 22, Pink announced a new track titled "Crystal Ball." On September 18, 2008, "So What" became the first solo number one of her career on the Billboard Hot 100.

Pink was the guest of honor at the 2008 ARIA Music Awards held in Sydney, Australia, in October 2008, where she sang "So What." On November 3, 2008, Funhouse debuted at number one on the ARIA charts, certified two times platinum and selling over 86,000 units in its first week. Pink's Funhouse Tour sold out all concerts in Australia, and she performed a total of 58 shows around the country between May and August 2009, performing for more than 600,000 Australian fans.^[33] The Funhouse Tour started in France on February 24 and continued through Europe until mid-May, with supporting act Raygun. Pink then performed a series of shows in Australia. On November 23, 2008, Pink performed her second single from Funhouse, "Sober" at the American Music Awards. The third single was "Please Don't Leave Me," with a video directed by Dave Meyers. The fourth single was "Funhouse," although "Bad Influence" was released in Australia prior to "Funhouse"'s release as a promotional single for the tour. In May 2009, Pink released a four-CD set of her albums Can't Take Me Home / Missundaztood / Try This / I'm Not Dead, excluding her current album Funhouse. The album peaked at number 7 in the UK Album Chart.^[34] In 2009, Pink performed in The People Speak a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.^[35]

On September 13, 2009, Pink performed "Sober" while doing a trapeze act at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards,^[36] where she was nominated for Best Female Video. On January 31, 2010, Pink did another trapeze act in the form of aerial silks at the 2010 Grammy Awards, this time performing the song "Glitter in the Air." She received a standing ovation. The music of Pink was the theme of the October 4, 2009 episode of Australian Idol.

[edit] 2010–11: Greatest Hits... So Far!!!

Pink was a soloist in the remake of the 1985 charity single, "We Are the World." Pink collaborated on the 2010 Herbie Hancock album, The Imagine Project, in which she sang Peter Gabriel's "Don't Give Up" with John Legend and contributed vocals to John Lennon's "Imagine" with Seal, India.Arie, Jeff Beck, Konono N°1, Oumou Sangare and others.^[37] Pink was featured on a track titled "Won't Back Down" for Eminem's 2010 album Recovery. Eminem explained that he included Pink because he "felt like she would smash this record."^[38]

On July 15, 2010, Pink fell during one of her aerial tricks during a concert in Nurnberg, Germany, where she fell out of a harness which was supposed to carry her across the crowd.^[39] She was rushed off stage and taken to a local hospital but wasn't seriously injured. She was treated by American doctors Chris Lorch and Jeremy Nicholson.^[40] Pink moved a total of 3,000,000 concert tickets on her 2009–2010 worldwide tour, according to a statement on behalf of U.K. tour promoter Marshall Arts.^[41]

In the first week of October 2010, Pink released "Raise Your Glass," the first single from her first compilation album, Greatest Hits... So Far!!!. The song celebrates a decade since Pink's debut in 2000 and is dedicated to her fans who have been supporting her over the years. The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming Pink's tenth Top 10 hit, and her second solo number one on the chart.^[42] On November 12, 2010, Pink released her first compilation album, entitled Greatest Hits... So Far!!!, and almost a month after that released her second single, named "Fuckin' Perfect." The song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100^[43] and peaked at #1 in Germany.^[44]

Pink voiced the character of Gloria in Happy Feet Two, which premiered on November 18, 2011 in the United States. She also sings the movie's theme song, "Bridge of Light."^[45] Pink will also have her first leading role, in an upcoming dramatic comedy entitled Thanks for Sharing, starring alongside Gwyneth Paltrow and Mark Ruffalo.^[46]

2012–present: Sixth studio album[link]

On October 7, 2011, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding Jive Records along with Arista Records and J Records. With the shutdown, Pink (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release her future material on the RCA Records brand. In 2011, Joe Riccitelli, an executive with RCA, announced that Pink was preparing to enter the studio to record her sixth studio album, to be released in september 2012.^[47][48] On February 29, 2012, P!nk took to her Twitter account and confirmed that she is currently in the writing process for her new record.^[49]

Artistry[link]

Influences[link]

Pink has named Madonna and Janis Joplin as two of her biggest musical influences.^[50] She stated that "I wanted to do it my way with my career, and I had this arrogant notion that people weren't just interested in my music but me as a person. That was my bit of arrogance, I guess. That's something I learned from Madonna. I was a fan right from the first time I heard 'Holiday'."^[50] Of Joplin she expressed: "She was so inspiring by singing blues music when it wasn't culturally acceptable for white women, and she wore her heart on her sleeve. She was so witty and charming and intelligent, but she also battled an ugly-duckling syndrome. I would love to play her in a movie."^[50]

Legacy[link]

Pink has been described as an artist who has changed the scope of pop music, but has hardly received recognition for it.^[51][52] Referring to her as a "powerhouse vocalist", Ann Powers of the Los Angeles Times asked, "Why isn't she an even bigger star?"^[52] Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone commented: "I think people respond to her sense of independence and dedication. It inspires people ... This is a prolific pop artist who is sometimes famous and successful, sometimes obscure, who nonetheless keeps making her own kind of music. Every few years, the spotlight comes back around to her—but her fans can trust that when the spotlight moves along, Pink will keep on writing Pink songs."^[52] Powers adds that her mix of rock-style rebellion, emotional rawness, humor and "infectious" dance beats created "a model for the mashup approach of latter-day divas such as Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and even Rihanna."^[52] James Montgomery of MTV describes her as "a fabulously fearless pop artist" who can "out-sing almost anyone out there. She can out-crazy Gaga or Lily. She's the total pop-star package, everything you'd want in a singer/entertainer/icon. And still, she remains oddly off the radar. Such is the price of busting borders, I suppose."^[51]

British soul singer Adele considers Pink's performance at Brixton Academy in London as one of "the most defining moments" in her life, saying "It was the Missundaztood record, so I was about 13 or 14. I had never heard, being in the room, someone sing like that live. I remember sort of feeling like I was in a wind tunnel, her voice just hitting me. It was incredible."^[53][54]

Personal life[link]

Family[link]

Pink met professional motocross racer Carey Hart at the 2001 X Games in Philadelphia. Following a brief separation in 2003, Pink proposed to Hart in June 2005 during a Mammoth Lakes motocross race by holding up a "Will you marry me?" sign on his pit board.^[55] They married in Costa Rica on January 7, 2006.^[56]

After months of speculation, Pink announced in February 2008 that she and Hart had separated.^[57][58] Hart subsequently appeared in the video for her 2008 song "So What",^[59] which deals with their separation and pending divorce.^[60] The couple sought marriage counseling during their separation ^[61] in hopes of reconciliation.^[62] In February 2010, Pink confirmed that she and Hart were back together,^[63] and announced the following November that they were expecting their first child.^[64] On June 2, 2011, Pink had their daughter, Willow Sage Hart.^[65]

Activism and charity work[link]

Pink is a prominent campaigner for PETA, contributing her voice toward causes such as the protest against KFC. In 2003, she sent a letter to Prince William criticizing him for fox hunting, and in 2006 wrote to Queen Elizabeth II protesting the use of real fur in the bearskins of the Foot Guards and the Honourable Artillery Company.^[66] In conjunction with PETA, she criticized the Australian wool industry over its use of mulesing. In January 2007, she stated that she had been misled by PETA about mulesing and that she had not done enough research before lending her name to the campaign.^[67] Her campaigning led to a headlining concert called PAW (Party for Animals Worldwide) in Cardiff, Wales on August 21, 2007.^[68]

Pink is also involved with several charities, including Human Rights Campaign, ONE Campaign, Prince's Trust, New York Restoration Project, Run for the Cure Foundation, Save the Children, Take Back the Night, UNICEF and World Society for the Protection of Animals.^[69] As of May 2008, Pink has been officially recognized as an advocate for the RSPCA in Australia. On February 16, 2009, Pink announced she was donating $250,000 to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal to aid the victims of the bushfires that swept through the Australian state of Victoria earlier that month.^[70] Pink stated that she wanted to make "a tangible expression of support."^[71] Pink also donated money to Autism Speaks.

Filmography[link]

Discography[link]

• 2000: Can't Take Me Home
• 2001: Missundaztood
• 2003: Try This
• 2006: I'm Not Dead
• 2008: Funhouse

Awards and nominations[link]

Tours[link]

See also[link]

	Book: Pink
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• List of best selling music artists

Further reading[link]

• Eichner, Billy (February 24, 2012). "Pop Music: 10 Reasons Why P!nk Is A Very Talented Woman". Buzz Feed. http://www.buzzfeed.com/billyonthestreet/10-reasons-why-pnk-is-a-very-talented-woman-4x71. Retrieved March 28, 2012. 
• Frere-Jones, Sasha (November 24, 2008). "Pop Music: Sass and Cadence". The New Yorker 84 (38): 124–126. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/musical/2008/11/24/081124crmu_music_frerejones. Retrieved April 16, 2009. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pink

• Official website
• Pink's channel on YouTube / VEVO
• Pink's channel on YouTube / Sony Music Entertainment
• Pink at the Internet Movie Database

Pink
— Common connotations —
girls, dawn, love, health, breast cancer awareness, calmness, fairies, Valentine's Day, spring, Easter, beauty, cuteness, glamour
— Color coordinates —
Hex triplet		#FFC0CB
sRGBB	(r, g, b)	(255, 192, 203)
HSV	(h, s, v)	(350°, 25%, 100%)
Source		HTML/CSS[1]
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Pink is any of the colors between bluish red (purple) to red, of medium to high brightness and of low to moderate saturation.^[2] Commonly used for Valentine's Day and Easter, pink is sometimes referred to as "the color of love." The use of the word for the color known today as pink was first recorded in the late 17th century.^[3]

Although pink is roughly considered just as a tint of red,^[4][5] most variations of pink lie between red, white and magenta colors. This means that the pink's hue is somewhat between red and magenta.^[6][7][8][9]

Roseus is a Latin word meaning "rosy" or "pink." Lucretius used the word to describe the dawn in his epic poem On the Nature of Things (De Rerum Natura).^[10] The word is also used in the binomial names of several species, such as the Rosy Starling (Sturnus roseus) and Catharanthus roseus. In most Indo-European languages, the color pink is called rosa. In Persian, it is called "Souraty," meaning "Color of the face." In Hindi, it is called "Gulabi," meaning "Colour of a rose."

Etymology[link]

Pink in watercolor pencil.

The color pink is named after the flowers called pinks, flowering plants in the genus Dianthus. The name derives from the frilled edge of the flowers—the verb "to pink" dates from the 14th century and means "to decorate with a perforated or punched pattern" (possibly from German "pinken" = to peck).^[11] As noted and referenced above, the word "pink" was first used as a noun to refer to the color known today as pink in the 17th century. The verb sense of the word "pink" continues to be used today in the name of the hand tool known as pinking shears.

Pinke[link]

In the 17th century, the word pink or pinke was also used to describe a yellowish pigment, which was mixed with blue colors to yield greenish colors. Thomas Jenner's A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing (1652) categorizes "Pink & blew bice" amongst the greens (p.  38),^[12] and specifies several admixtures of greenish colors made with pink—e.g. "Grasse-green is made of Pink and Bice, it is shadowed with Indigo and Pink ... French-green of Pink and Indico [shadowed with] Indico" (pp. 38–40). In William Salmon's Polygraphice (1673), "Pink yellow" is mentioned amongst the chief yellow pigments (p. 96), and the reader is instructed to mix it with either Saffron or Ceruse for "sad" or "light" shades thereof, respectively (p. 98).

In gender[link]

A person in a pink sweatshirt knitting a pink scarf

• The use of pink as distinctive of girls can be dated back at least to 1868, in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, when, after being shown boy and girl twins, Laurie asks:

Most remarkable children I ever saw. Which is which?...Amy put a blue ribbon on the boy and a pink on the girl, French fashion, so you can always tell.^[13]

University of Maryland Professor Jo B. Paoletti, author of book Pink and Blue: Telling the Girls From the Boys in America, considers this was common usage in French orphanages during the 18th century,^[14] but this was not the case everywhere. In the United States, there was no established rule:

In 1855 the New York Times reported on a "baby show" put on by P.T. Barnum, exhibiting "one hundred and odd babies" dressed in pinks, blues, and other colors seemingly without regard to gender. ... A Times fashion report from 1880 has boys and girls dressed alike in white, pink, blue, or violet, and another from 1892 says young girls were wearing a variety of colors that spring, including several shades of blue^[15]

An Ethiopian model wearing a pink fashion outfit

There are theories indicating an origin of this costume in the 20th century. Zucker and Bradly say that it began in the 1920s^[16] and other authors suggest the 1910s.^[17] An article in the trade publication Earnshaw's Infants' Department in June 1918 said: "The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."^[18] From then until the 1940s, pink was considered appropriate for boys because being related to red it was the more masculine and decided color, while blue was considered appropriate for girls because it was the more delicate and dainty color, or related to the Virgin Mary.^[19][20][21] Since the 1940s, the societal norm was inverted; pink became considered appropriate for girls and blue appropriate for boys, a practice that has continued into the 21st century.^[22]

• Some feminists have sought to 'reclaim' the color pink. For example, the Swedish feminist party Feminist Initiative and the American activist women's group Code Pink: Women for Peace use pink as their color.

• The pink ribbon is the international symbol of breast cancer awareness. Pink was chosen partially because it is so strongly associated with femininity.^[23]

• It has been suggested that females prefer pink because of a preference for reddish things like ripe fruits and healthy faces,^[24] but the associated study has been criticized as "bad science".^[25]

• The phrase "pink-collar worker" refers, in the West, to persons working in fields or jobs conventionally regarded as "women's work."

In sexuality[link]

• Whereas Jewish people were forced to wear a yellow star of David under Nazi rule, men imprisoned on accusations of homosexuality were forced to wear a pink triangle. Nowadays, a pink triangle (sometimes pointing up, contrary to Nazi usage) is often worn with pride.^[26]
• A Dutch newsgroup about homosexuality is called nl.roze (roze being the Dutch word for pink), while in Britain, Pink News is a leading gay newspaper and online news service. There is a magazine called Pink for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) community which has different editions for various metropolitan areas.^[27] In France Pink TV is an LGBT cable channel.
• In business, the pink pound or pink dollar refers to the spending power of the LGBT community.^[28] Advertising agencies sometimes call the gay market the pink economy.
• Though long discontinued, the now mainstream gay-oriented magazine The Advocate for many years of its early history featured a sometimes sizable section of personal ads and mostly sexually oriented ads printed on pink paper and referred to as "the pink pages." As the gay rights movement gained increased mainstream momentum and public acceptance, and as the magazine itself became less underground and was distributed more widely on newsstands in "middle America," the publishers made the section more easily removable for those who preferred not to view/keep it with the main body of the magazine, and The Advocate eventually ceased to include the "pink pages" at all.

In nature[link]

A pink plant

Plants[link]

• Cherry blossoms only have a pink color when they bloom in the springtime.

Animals[link]

Reptiles[link]

• The pink iguana is an iguana that was first identified in 1986 and first recognized as a distinct species in 2009.

Birds[link]

• Most flamingo species are pink in color due to pink pigments in their diet.

Mammals[link]

• Many pigs are colored pink.
• The so-called "white elephant" is revered in several countries in Southeast Asia and is naturally pink.
• The Pink Dolphin is a freshwater river dolphin endemic to the Orinoco, Amazon and Araguaia/Tocantins River systems of Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela. It is an endangered species and has a brain 40% larger than a human's.

In art[link]

• 

  

  Detail of pink poster
  In 1973, Sheila Levrant de Bretteville created "Pink," a broadside meant to explore the notions of gender as associated with the color pink, for an American Institute of Graphic Arts exhibition about color. This was the only entry about the color pink. Various women including many in the Feminist Studio Workshop at the Woman's Building submitted entries exploring their association with the color. De Bretteville arranged the squares of paper to form a “quilt” from which posters were printed and disseminated throughout Los Angeles.^[29] She was often called "Pinky" as a result.
• In 1993, artist Gioia Fonda created a conceptual piece in the form of a week long holiday called pink week. The intention of pink week is to liberate the color pink from all dogma and simply celebrate the color pink as a color.^[30]
• Bubblegum Pink is an installation by the artist duo Bigert & Bergstrom which "confronted [the viewer] with three different mental climates" ^[31] involving large amounts of pink. This mirrors the use of the color in American prisons to calm aggressive prisoners. It features a pink cell and a carpet worn by repetitive pacing.^[32]
• Christo and Jeanne-Claude's Surrounded Islands wrapped wooded islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with 6,500,000 square feet (600,000 m²) of bright pink fabric.^[33] Thomas von Taschitzki has said that "the monochrome pink wrappings"..."form a counterpoint to the small green wooded islands." ^[34]
• Many of Franz West's aluminium sculptures were often painted a bright pink, for example Sexualitatssymbol (Symbol of Sexuality). West has said that the pink was intended as an "outcry to nature".^[35]

In culture[link]

Academic dress[link]

• In the French academic dress system, the five traditional fields of study (Arts, Science, Medicine, Law and Divinity) are each symbolized by a distinctive color, which appears in the academic dress of the people who graduated in this field. Redcurrant, an extremely red shade of pink, is the distinctive color for Medicine (and other health-related fields) fr:Groseille (couleur).

Adoption[link]

• In Ireland, Support group for Irish Pink Adoptions defines a pink family as a relatively neutral umbrella term for the single gay men, single lesbians, or same-gender couples who intend to adopt, are in the process of adopting, or have adopted. It also covers adults born/raised in such families. The group welcome the input of other people touched by adoption, especially people who were adopted as children and are now adults.

Alcoholic beverages[link]

• Seeing pink elephants is a euphemism for hallucinations caused by delirium tremens.^[36] The concept was used in the Disney's animated film Dumbo when the title character accidentally becomes drunk and sees a parade of pink elephants.
• A pink lady is an alcoholic beverage made with gin and grenadine syrup and may include other ingredients. ^[37] A pink squirrel is made of white creme de cacao, creme de noyaux and cream. ^[38]
• Pink Gin is a cocktail made by rinsing a glass with bitters and filling with gin.^[39]

Calendars[link]

• In Thailand, pink is associated with Tuesday on the Thai solar calendar. Anyone may wear pink on Tuesdays, and anyone born on a Tuesday may adopt pink as their color.

Cartography[link]

• In the 19th and early 20th century, pink was the traditional color used in cartography to represent the British Empire. ^[40]

Clothing[link]

• Pink (Victoria's Secret) is a line of loungeware clothing.^[41]

Cosmetics[link]

• Mary Kay in 1968, Mary Kay Ash, purchased the first Pink Cadillac, which eventually became the trademark of her company.

Economics[link]

• Pink Money refers to the financial power of the LGBT community.

Education[link]

• At the Miraloma Elementary School in San Francisco, California, on September 6 2007, the principal, Ron Machado, got a pink Mohawk haircut , as he had agreed to do if the students raised the school’s Academic Performance Index by at least 55 points. They raised it by 67 points.^[42]

Employment[link]

• When one gets laid off or fired from one's job, in the United States, it is called getting a pink slip.

Film and television[link]

Characters[link]

• The Pink Panther is a popular cartoon character. He is slightly talkative in two episodes.
• In The Fairly OddParents, the protagonist Timmy Turner wears a pink shirt and hat.
• In Power Rangers and their Japanese origins Super Sentai the Pink Rangers are always female and there was never a male Pink Ranger on the show. In one season (Power Rangers: Time Force) and its Japanese Equivalent Mirai Sentai Timeranger, the Pink Ranger (Jen Scotts) as well as her counterpart Yuri was the leader. The first Pink Ranger, Kimberly Hart, became an icon during the first season of the show.
• In the animated TV series The Powerpuff Girls, the leader Blossom wears a pink dress that matches her pink eyes.
• In the Sonic the Hedgehog series, one of the characters Amy Rose, is a pink hedgehog. Also, Rouge the Bat is usually depicted wearing pink clothing.

Other[link]

• Pretty In Pink has the color named in the title.
• Pink Cadillac was a 1989 movie starring Clint Eastwood.
• Pink Ladies was the name of Betty Rizzo's (Stockard Channing) gang in the film, Grease.
• In Japan, blue films were categorized as Pink films (ÉsÉìÉNâfâÊ, Pinku Eiga^?)^[43]. Such description is not used recently since "Adult Videos (ÉAÉ_ÉãÉgÉrÉfÉI, Adaruto Bideo^?) became popular.

Finance[link]

• Since 1893 the London Financial Times newspaper has used a distinctive salmon pink color for its newsprint, mainly as a way to distinguish itself from competitors. In other countries, the salmon press identifies economic newspapers or economics sections in "white" newspapers.

Food[link]

• In Japanese language, pink has been described as Momoiro (ìçêF, Momo-Iro^?), which means "peach color", but Pink (ÉsÉìÉN, Pinku^?) is more popular recently.

Gender[link]

• The color pink is often used to represent women or young girls. (See discussion above in section on Pink in gender and sexuality.).

Gun rights[link]

• The Pink Pistols is a gay gun rights organization.^[44]

Health[link]

• In the pink is an English idiomatic expression for in good condition or in good health.
• Pink is the official color for Breast Cancer

Literature[link]

• In Spanish and Italian, a "pink novel" (novela rosa in Spanish, romanzo rosa in Italian) is a sentimental novel marketed to women.
• In Nathaniel Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown, Faith is wearing a pink ribbon in her hair which represents her innocence.^[45]
• Carl Surely's short story "Dinsdale's Pink" is a coming of age tale of a young man growing up in Berlin in the 1930's, dealing with issues of gender, sexuality and politics.

Military[link]

• In Nazi Germany, in the Wehrmacht, the panzer divisions used pink military flags.^[46][47][48]

Music[link]

• Pink Houses is a song by singer-songwriter John Mellencamp.
• Pink is an American singer-songwriter whose real name is Alecia Moore.^[49]
• "Pink" is a song by Aerosmith.
• Under The Pink is an album by Tori Amos.
• In the Land of Grey and Pink is an album by Caravan.
• Pink Moon is an album by the English singer/songwriter Nick Drake.
• The Legendary Pink Dots are a cult-classic Anglo-Dutch experimental rock band.
• Pink Fairies is a British hard rock band; one of the founding members, Twink released a solo album called Think Pink.
• "Think Pink!" is a song from Funny Face.
• Pink Cadillac (song) is a 1984 humorous rockabilly song by Bruce Springsteen
• Elvis Presley owned what is the most famous Pink Cadillac in the world
• Japanese stoner/drone band Boris have a 2005 album called Pink.
• Pink Lady was a Japanese female pop music duo of the late 1970s and early 1980s, featuring Mitsuyo Nemoto ("Mie") and Keiko Masuda ("Kei").
• Pinky was a Japanese punk rock performer in the early 1990s.
• Shocking Blue – whose name may be a gender-reversing play on shocking pink – was a Dutch rock band that was founded in the late 1960s.
• The Pink Spiders, an American power pop band.
• The Flaming Lips, an alternative/psychedelic band, produced the album Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots.
• "Pretty in Pink" is a song by The Psychedelic Furs
• Pink Martini is an orchestral band from Portland, Oregon.
• Pink Floyd were an English rock band.
• In The Sing Off, Solo wore pink T-shirts.

Panelology[link]

• A new form of Kryptonite called pink kryptonite appeared in Supergirl Comics in 2003. It turns super-powered Kryptonians temporarily gay.^[50]

Performance art[link]

• Pink Man is a performance artist currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area who wears a pink unitard while riding a unicycle.^[51]

Politics[link]

• Pink, being a 'watered-down' red, is sometimes used in a derogatory way to describe a person with mild communist or socialist beliefs (see Pinko).
• In maps of political parties in Portugal, pink is used to represent the Socialist Party.

The Pink House (Casa Rosada) is the official residence of the President of Argentina.

• The Pink House (Spanish: Casa Rosada) is the official seat of the executive branch of the government of Argentina.
• Code Pink is an anti-war organization co-founded in 2002 by anti-corporate globalization activist Medea Benjamin of the NGO Global Exchange in San Francisco.^[52]
• The term pink revolution may be used to refer to the overthrow of President Askar Akayev and his government in the Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan after the parliamentary elections of February 27 and of March 13, 2005, although it is more commonly called the tulip revolution.
• The city of Lund, Sweden staged a fake gay Nazi parade on 17 August 2005 with pink banners that said Welcome Gay Nazis in order to play a joke on and cause discomfort to Scandinavian neo-Nazis who stage a march each year in that city to honor a Swedish king.^[53]

Religion[link]

• In Catholicism, pink (called rose by the Catholic Church) symbolizes joy and happiness. It is used for the Third Sunday of Advent and the Fourth Sunday of Lent (see Laetare Sunday) to mark the halfway point in these seasons of penance. For this reason, one of the candles in an Advent wreath may be pink, rather than purple. However, in some Protestant denominations, the pink candle is sometimes lit on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, sometimes known as the Sunday of Love^{[citation needed]}.
• Pink is the color most associated with Indian spiritual leader Meher Baba, who often wore pink coats to please his closest female follower, Mehera Irani, and today pink remains an important color, symbolizing love, to Baba's followers.
• The Invisible Pink Unicorn is the goddess of a parody religion, a rhetorical tool intended to satirize the contradictory properties often attributed to deities.

Sonics[link]

• Pink noise ( sample (help·info)), also known as 1/f noise, in audio engineering is a signal or process with a frequency spectrum such that the power spectral density is proportional to the reciprocal of the frequency.

Sports[link]

• In Major League Baseball, pink bats are used by baseball players on Mother's Day as part of a weeklong program to benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
• Pink can mean the scarlet coat worn in fox hunting (a.k.a. "riding to hounds"). One legend about the origin of this meaning refers to a tailor named Pink (or Pinke, or Pinque).
• The leader in the Giro d'Italia cycle race wears a pink jersey (maglia rosa); this reflects the distinctive pink-colored newsprint of the sponsoring Italian La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper.
• The University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium visitors' locker room is painted pink. The decor has sparked controversy, perceived by some people as suggesting sexism and homophobia.^[54]
• Palermo, a soccer team based in Palermo, Italy, traditionally wears pink home jerseys.
• WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart, as well as other members of the Hart wrestling family, is known for his pink and black wrestling attire.
• The Western Hockey League team Calgary Hitmen originally wore pink as a tribute to the affore mentioned Bret Hart, who was a part team owner at the time.

Toys[link]

• Toys aimed at girls often display pink prominently on packaging and the toy themselves.
• In its 1957 catalog, Lionel Trains offered for sale a pink model freight train for girls. The steam locomotive and coal car were pink and the freight cars of the freight train were various pastel colors. The caboose was baby blue. It was a marketing failure because any girl who was enough a tomboy to want a model train would want a real train and not a pink train, and boys in the 1950s did not want to be seen playing with a pink train. However, today it is a valuable collector’s item.^[55]

Transportation planning[link]

Delta Air Lines' Pink Breast Cancer Research Foundation Boeing 767-400ER

• The Chicago Transit Authority recently debuted the Pink Line rail service.
• In the London Underground system, Hammersmith & City Line, running from Hammersmith to Barking is assigned the color pink on the tube map.
• Pink is one of the colors used in the fixtures of the MMDA such as bus shelters; the other one is light blue. Also, pink is painted on some streets of Metro Manila.
• The Pink Line is a proposed subway through the city of West Hollywood.
• Delta Air Lines has a Boeing 767-400ER aircraft painted in a pink livery for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

See also[link]

• Fuchsia (color) Fuchsia Pink
• List of colors
• Pink Panther
• Rose (color)
• Rosé, a wine whose color is neither red nor white
• Variations of pink

References[link]

External links[link]

Look up in the pink in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Support group for Irish Pink Adoptions