25/08/2026
Not only was she one of the best songwriters and singers of all time, she was an ICON. The hair, the rhinestones, the humour, the outfits, yet underneath all of that was a seriously clever woman who was years ahead of her time. She wrote her own songs, protected her work, built her own businesses and showed millions of women that you could be glamorous, funny and feminine and still mean business.
She championed women without ever making it feel like a battle against everyone else, gently walking the fine line of championing minorities rights at a time where it could have been career ending. She spoke about working women, independence, ambition and being underestimated long before those conversations were as common and accepted as they are now.
And somehow Dolly was one of those rare people who seemed to cross every divide. Different generations, different backgrounds, different politics, different tastes, something that seems incredibly impossible in today's world. Still to this day, on our Friday nights together as a family, we'll stick on one of Dolly's music videos, to which my 83 year old Grandad John who has Dementia will be singing to, alongside us grandchildren who are in our 20s!
Dolly made an enormous amount of money and gave an enormous amount away. She put millions of books into the hands of children. She invested in the place she came from. She supported education, healthcare and people who needed help. She had the sort of wealth and influence most people could only imagine, and actually used it for something worthwhile, never forgetting what it was like to have nothing in life before all the fame.
Imagine if more people with that level of money, power and influence thought the same way. Imagine if more people used what they had to make things a little better for somebody else, the next generation and to do good in the world!!
The world would genuinely be a better place with more Dollys in it. However, there will only ever be one of her.
And of course, the higher the hair, the closer to God and inevitably, heaven. And if anyone earned her place there, Dolly certainly did. 💗
