4 Non Blondes
'What's Up?' — one enormous, unavoidable song and a Linda Perry vocal nobody has managed to imitate since, reunited so a whole field can scream the hey-yeah-yeahs together.
The band began when bassist Christa Hillhouse and guitarist Shaunna Hall, then roommates, started playing with drummer Wanda Day. After hearing Linda Perry sing at a solo show in a San Francisco club, they asked her to join as vocalist. Their first rehearsal was scheduled for the evening of October 17, 1989, hours after the Loma Prieta earthquake struck the Bay Area.
The name came from an incident where a mother steered her child away from a stray piece of pizza near the group and looked pointedly at them: four women who did not fit the local blonde stereotype. The band built an early following playing San Francisco bars, including lesbian venues, before signing to Interscope.
Bigger, Better, Faster, More! spent 59 weeks on the Billboard 200 and sold more than six million copies worldwide. "What's Up?" reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts in Ireland, Austria, Germany and Sweden, carried by Perry's raw, unmistakable vocal and the band's blues-inflected take on early-1990s alternative rock.
Perry, who is openly lesbian, performed with a "dyke" sticker on her guitar, including at the 1993 Billboard Music Awards and on Late Night with David Letterman. She left the band in 1994, and the remaining members split up shortly afterward, with Perry moving into songwriting and production work for other artists.
4 Non Blondes reformed for a one-off show in 2014, then in 2025 announced a longer-term reunion, with new live dates and new music planned. It marked the group's first sustained regrouping since Perry's departure three decades earlier.
4 Non Blondes at a glance
Where is 4 Non Blondes from?
4 Non Blondes is from San Francisco, CA.
What kind of music does 4 Non Blondes play?
4 Non Blondes is tagged alt-rock.
What festivals has 4 Non Blondes played before?
4 Non Blondes has played Bourbon & Beyond 2026.
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