Best Female Vocalist in Boston

Amanda Palmer

Amanda Palmer's covered a lot of ground since her days in collective street theater at Wesleyan and busking as "The Eight Foot Bride" in Harvard Square. Hell, she's covered even more ground since she last won the Best Female Vocalist BMP award in 2005 — the year that her cabaret punk duo the Dresden Dolls also won for Best Local Act and Best Local Album. This year, she released her second solo full-length studio album, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under. She has also recently started a side project pretending to be conjoined twins, and self-released an album of ukulele-based Radiohead covers. In April, she collaborated with Ben Folds, (husband) Neil Gaiman, and Damian Kulash on 8in8 at Berklee's Rethink Music conference, recording eight songs in eight hours. The laundry list goes on. If any musician is nationally recognized as a face of Boston music over the past five years, it's likely — and deservedly — Amanda Palmer.

RUNNERS-UP:
2. Jenny Dee (Jenny Dee & the Deelinquents)
3. Leesa Coyne (Naked on Roller Skates)
4. Aly Spaltro (Lady Lamb the Beekeeper)

by LIZ PELLY

Amanda Palmer