When it comes to both women\u2019s health research and supporting female musicians, Women Who Rock is staying anything but quiet.<\/p>\n
With another annual benefit concert at the indoor venue of Stage AE on the North Shore, the organization made Saturday night an unforgettable, pink-tinged event full of powerful voices.<\/p>\n
The evening kicked off with virtuoso guitarist Malina Moye, who performed the national anthem. Before tearing into her moving rendition, she said, \u201cAmerica was built on legends, icons, but it\u2019s the people \u2014 us \u2014 who preserve that legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Melinda Colaizzi, founder of Women Who Rock, took the stage to cheers. \u201cThis event and movement started right here in Pittsburgh, and it\u2019s now impacting women\u2019s lives all over the world,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are so lucky. We are leading the world in women\u2019s health research right here from Pittsburgh.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was speaking specifically of the Magee-Womens Research Institute, where groundbreaking advances into women\u2019s health are occurring all the time \u2014 with the help of funds from this event.<\/p>\n
The benefit concert was emceed by Kelly Dzanaj of Star 100.7 FM. She announced Mallory Bozovich, winner of this year\u2019s Women Who Rock Rising Star Contest. The 18-year-old country singer-songwriter put plenty of punch into her performance when she sang her song \u201cGravel & a Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the midst of all the music, a group of incredible women filed onto the stage, the Survivors Who Rock. They were accompanied by singer Kalie Shorr, singing her song \u201cFight Like a Girl.\u201d It was a powerful reminder of the future the event is fighting for.<\/p>\n
The featured act for the benefit concert was Youngstown, Ohio, band The Vindys. Fronted by the sensational voice of Jackie Popovec, the band showed plenty of range. They started off with a tribute to recently deceased legend Dolly Parton, with Popovec lending her brassy-but-sweet vocals to \u201cJolene.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their other songs ranged from stomping Americana to pulse-pounding pure rock to a touch of disco-tinged pop under bubblegum pink lights. They earned big cheers with the jamfest \u201cTrap Door\u201d and when Popovec gave Axl Rose a run for his money singing the last section of \u201cSweet Child \u2018O Mine.\u201d Between their pealing guitars and exuberant horns, the band brought pure spirit to every note.<\/p>\n
Before headliner Taylor Dayne appeared, the Women Who Rock Impact Award for 2026 was presented to Diana Napper of the A Glimmer Of Hope Foundation. The organization \u2014 which has raised more than $7 million for breast cancer research \u2014 provided the original seed grant for DCIS breast cancer vaccine research at UPMC.<\/p>\n
\u201cDiana Napper is an amazing human being, a great role model and a true pioneer,\u201d said Michael Annachine, president and CEO of Magee-Womens Research Institute, as he presented the award to Napper.<\/p>\n
In accepting, Napper said, \u201cFor my granddaughters, my greatest dream is that one day they will ask me, \u2018what was breast cancer?\u2019 Because of this vaccine, that is a possibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
The night\u2019s headliner ended a great evening on an even higher note. Taylor Dayne may have been one of many late-\u201980s pop stars, but she\u2019s got the voice of an icon. She\u2019s sold more than 75 million albums and singles worldwide and got seven singles in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 from 1987 to 1990. She is also a cancer survivor who has advocated recently for people \u2014 especially women \u2014 to prioritize early detection.<\/p>\n
The 64-year-old singer performed 11 songs on Saturday night and nothing short of glowed for all of them. In the upbeat and dancey openers \u201cProve Your Love\u201d and \u201cWith Every Beat of My Heart,\u201d Dayne strutted the stage in sparkles and belted out each note with surprising power.<\/p>\n
Even in \u201cDon\u2019t Rush Me,\u201d where her voice dipped into a lower, breathier register, Dayne found her footing easily. While ballads including \u201cI\u2019ll Always Love You\u201d don\u2019t fit quite as well into her wheelhouse \u2014 her vocals were a bit harsh \u2014 they still packed an emotional punch.<\/p>\n
She paid tribute to many artists she admired and who are no longer with us with covers, including a soulful rendition of \u201cI Can\u2019t Stand the Rain\u201d for Tina Turner. But the finest of her covers was of Prince\u2019s \u201cNothing Compares 2 U,\u201d which suited her perfectly. She pushed her already high voice even higher in some fantastic soaring notes, and she let the audience sing some of the lines to make it a truly communal experience.<\/p>\n
After the \u201980s-prom-coded No. 1 hit \u201cLove Will Lead You Back,\u201d she leapt into a \u201990s techno rendition of Barry White\u2019s \u201cCan\u2019t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,\u201d accompanied by multicolored lights and a crowd that was excited to dance. After a couple of verses, her band transitioned into a more traditional \u201970s version of the song, which was just as gratifying.<\/p>\n
Dayne changed it up with her penultimate song, which was guitar-driven and even a little honky-tonk. \u201cI\u2019ll Be Your Shelter\u201d was written by Diane Warren and felt like a fitting message of support and love for the evening\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
But she wasn\u2019t done yet. After declaring \u201cC\u2019mon girls, we rock!\u201d Dayne rode the wave of her boundless energy into her most well-remembered hit, \u201cTell It To My Heart.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a night full of great causes, great music and the incredible power of women\u2019s voices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to both women\u2019s health research and supporting female musicians, Women Who Rock is staying anything…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-309592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}