It is impossible to think of Dolly Parton without the mind taking us to that voluminous platinum blonde bouffant, those endless nails, that impossible voice timbre, and that silhouette squeezed into very tight jeans. The mother of country insisted from a very young age on building the image she always wanted and maintained until her last days. With her dies at 80 years old the great female voice of a genre that was only reserved for men and that she decided to storm by force. With her dies a musical and aesthetic icon. With her dies one of the greatest legends that Tennessee gave. And that is no small thing.
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They say that even before she knew how to read, Dolly Parton was already composing. By simple and pure intuition. Born into a family of 12 siblings, with hardly any resources, in the small town of Sevierville, she didn’t need television, cinema, or magazines to start weaving in her head a career that would end up being immense. She did it one day when she accompanied her mother to the city. There she saw a woman with a huge bouffant, red lips, well made up, and wearing heels whom her mother ordered her not to look at and called trash – trash in English -. “I thought: ‘That is what I want to be when I grow up: trash‘“, she recounted on several occasions later, already turned into the queen of country.
The best songs of Dolly Parton and the stories behind them
- Written by: AP New York
Dolly Parton dies: a life in pictures
- Written by: AGENCIES
For months, Parton had been forced to postpone various commitments, especially the six-concert residency she had planned in Las Vegas as a return to the stage, due to health problems. She herself attributed them to having put her own well-being aside to care for who was her husband for almost six decades, Carl Dean, who passed away in March 2025. This Tuesday, just over a year later, the most popular of country stars has died, her family confirmed to Reuters.
With that characteristic nasal and penetrating tone, Parton became a star already in the 70s after having played on the street and tried her luck in Nashville. In 1972, her big hit arrived: Jolene, which was number one on the country charts from the first moment. That attack of jealousy towards a cashier who flirted with her husband is still today the bible for any female voice that wants to succeed. There are the examples of Miley Cyrus – goddaughter of Parton – or Beyoncé with their own versions of the classic.
Soon after came I Will Always Love You, which, according to some rumors, the singer wrote the same night as Jolene as a counterpoint and which two decades later would become a worldwide hit in the voice of Whitney Houston as the soundtrack of The Bodyguard. But the author of that classic was that white, blonde woman who always dressed with a cowboy aesthetic. Iconic is the album cover that included both songs: Parton sitting with crossed legs, wearing striped overalls and a tender look.
Parton won 11 Grammy awards during the six decades she dedicated to music, wrote more than 3,000 songs, became one of the best-selling female artists of all time – surpassing 100 million records sold -, made country explode into a phenomenon beyond the borders of the United States, and never wanted to assume the star role that corresponded to her despite having a statue placed in her home state. She dedicated herself to promoting literacy programs for children in various English-speaking countries, awarded scholarships to high school students in Tennessee county, and donated one million dollars for Moderna to develop the Covid vaccine.
In the 80s, as she had already done in country, Parton stormed Hollywood alongside Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, that trio of secretaries from 9 to 5, signed four other movies – especially Steel Magnolias – and delved even more into the aesthetic she had embraced. She wore tight jumpsuits with embedded rhinestones, dazzling satin dresses, heavy makeup, and, of course, the unmistakable platinum bouffant. “I just wanted to be pretty, to attract attention, to be colorful and to be seen. When they say, ‘Less is more’, I think it’s nonsense. More is more. I am flashy and showy. If I hadn’t been a girl, I definitely would have been a drag queen. I like extravagance, I love all that sparkle and color,” she admitted in an interview with the US edition of Elle magazine.
She ended up hosting her own TV show, Dolly Variety Show; was a host and guest artist on Saturday Night Live, and when asked to start toning down her style, she refused. She made it even more strident, bought a wig for every day of the year – she said so herself – and built a theme park that bears her name Dollywood and that more than three million people visit annually to enjoy traditional Tennessee food and listen to some local musical performances – including some by the owner herself -.
In recent years, Dolly Parton had also acted as a mentor to women who wanted to delve into country music, among them Ella Langley, one of the great current phenomena of the genre. But, above all, she was the great mentor of Miley Cyrus, since her youthful breakthrough with Hannah Montana. The entire career of the singer is crossed by the one who always said she was her godmother and especially moving is the joint performance of Jolene they shared in 2010 during the 25th anniversary of Dollywood.
A star has died.