Laurie Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is a singer-songwriter who initially rose to prominence in the art field as a "performance artist". For example, one of her early compositions was a symphony performed on automobile horns; another saw her playing a violin solo while wearing ice skates and balanced on a block of ice (when the ice melted away, the performance was over). Beginning in the late 1970s, she began incorporating more music into her work, in particular a four-hour, two-night event called United States. One song from United States, "O Superman", became an unexpected Top 10 hit in the United Kingdom in 1981, rising to #2. This led to a long-term record deal with Warner Bros. Records.
By the mid-1980s, Anderson had recorded several albums, including collaborations with author William S. Burroughs, Peter Gabriel and Philip Glass (with the latter, co-writing a song performed by Linda Ronstadt). In 1986, she released a concert film titled Home of the Brave. The two songs she performed on SNL in 1986 (around the time of the film's release) were from her upcoming album, Strange Angels - however, the album would not be released until 1989.
Anderson continued to record albums and create a number of long-form musical and spoken-word performances, at one point becoming NASA's first and only artist-in-residence. She was also romantically linked with Lou Reed, who she recorded with and eventually married. Now in her mid-70s, she continues to perform and record, winning a Grammy for her 2018 album, Landfall. In 2024 she released a spoken word/musical album titled Amelia.