Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo from Atlanta, Georgia, United States, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers.

[2] Outside of working on Indigo Girls–related projects, Ray has released solo albums and founded a non-profit recording label that promotes independent musicians.

Homesick, both returned to Georgia and transferred to Emory University in Atlanta (where Saliers' father was a professor).

[1] That same year, the Indigo Girls released a six-track extended play album named Indigo Girls, and in 1987 released their first full-length album, Strange Fire, recorded at John Keane Studio in Athens, Georgia, and including "Crazy Game".

[1] Also on the self-titled release was their first hit "Closer to Fine" (a collaboration with Irish band Hothouse Flowers),[1] which scored No.

Their second album, Nomads Indians Saints, went gold in December 1991 and included the hit song "Hammer and a Nail", a No.

The Indigo Girls followed it with the live Back on the Bus, Y'all and 1992's album Rites of Passage, featuring the song "Galileo",[1] the duo's first top 10 modern rock music track (#10).

Shaming of the Sun debuted at number seven on the Billboard charts, driven by the duo's contribution to the Lilith Fair music festival tour.

On June 14, 2005, they released Rarities, a collection of B-sides and rare tracks partially decided by fans' input, which fulfilled the album count obligation for their contract with Epic.

John Metzger from MusicBox Online described Despite our Differences as "the most infectious, pop-infused set that the duo ever has managed to concoct.

This album is their first fully independent release since 1987's Strange Fire, and their first two-CD set since 1995's live album 1200 Curfews; the first disc has the 10 tracks accompanied by a backing band, and the second includes the same 10 songs with only Ray and Saliers on vocals and acoustic guitars, and an additional track.

On June 29, 2010 Indigo Girls' second full-length live album, Staring Down the Brilliant Dream, was released on IG Recordings/Vanguard Records.

Beginning in 2017, the Indigo Girls have toured the United States performing their music arranged for symphony orchestra.

[15] There are a few exceptions, mostly unreleased songs from their early, pre-Epic days: "I Don't Know Your Name" and "If You Live Like That."

Finally, "I'll Give You My Skin", which appears both on Tame Yourself (a benefit album for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and on the Indigo Girls release Rarities, is a collaborative work by Ray, Saliers, and Michael Stipe, which is doubly rare because Saliers and Ray usually write their songs without outside collaborators.

[16] In September 2020, the Indigo Girls released "Long Ride", the first song Ray and Saliers had written together in 30 years.

They promoted the release of the book together including several days of speaking and performing together at the Washington National Cathedral College in Washington D.C. Ray has put out six solo albums, entitled Stag, Prom, Live from Knoxville, Didn't It Feel Kinder, Amy Ray: Live MVP, Lung of Love, Goodnight Tender and Holler through Daemon.

Ray and Saliers appeared in the 1995 film Boys on the Side, playing short excerpts from their songs "Joking" and "Southland in the Springtime", as well as singing "Feliz Cumpleaños" ("Happy Birthday" in Spanish) with the gathered group of friends during the birthday cake scene, and standing on the far side of several shots over the next few scenes.

The girls are mentioned multiple times in Stephen King's 1995 novel Rose Madder, and Curtis Sittenfeld's 2023 novel Romantic Comedy, as well as being name-dropped in various TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Will and Grace, South Park, 30 Rock, The Office, Squidbillies, The Big Bang Theory, Saturday Night Live, Harley Quinn and Nip\Tuck.

[27][28][29] Amy Ray has long lived in the foothills of the North Georgia Mountains with her longtime partner, filmmaker Carrie Schrader from Seattle, whom she’s been with since 2001.

[30] Saliers married her longtime girlfriend,[31] former Indigo Girls tour manager Tristin Chipman, at New York City Hall[32] in 2013.

[33] Chipman, a Canadian, is from Calgary, "but she spent most of her adult life in Toronto," according to Saliers between songs when performing onstage in Vancouver in 2013.

They helped Winona LaDuke establish Honor the Earth, an organization dedicated to creating support and education for native environmental issues.

Returning the favor, Pink performed on the Indigo Girls' "Rock and Roll Heaven's Gate," which is about, among other things, sexism and heterosexism in the music industry.

[38] The Indigo Girls are also members of the Canadian charity Artists Against Racism and have worked with them on awareness campaigns.

[39] Indigo Girls allow fans to tape their shows,[61] and appropriately gathered recordings can be traded, obtained for free from a number of sources.