Emily Saliers Net Worth

What Is Emily Saliers' Net Worth?

Emily Saliers is an American singer-songwriter and author who has a net worth of $3 million. Emily Saliers is best known for being a member of the folk duo Indigo Girls, which she formed with Amy Ray in 1985. Indigo Girls have released more than a dozen studio albums, including "Strange Fire" (1987), "Indigo Girls" (1989), "Rites of Passage" (1992), "Swamp Ophelia" (1994), "All That We Let In" (2004), and "Look Long" (2020). Saliers plays lead guitar, piano, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, and bouzouki, and she released the solo album "Murmuration Nation" in 2017. She also co-wrote the 2004 book "A Song to Sing, a Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice" with her father, Don Saliers, who taught theology at Emory University's Candler School of Theology.

Early Life

Emily Saliers was born Emily Ann Saliers on July 22, 1963, in New Haven, Connecticut. She is the daughter of librarian Jane Saliers and theology professor Don Saliers. Emily has three sisters, and her family moved to Decatur, Georgia, when she was 11 years old. Her father was the Candler School of Theology's William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Theology and Worship, and after retiring, he was named the school's Theologian-in-Residence and became a professor emeritus. Don is also an organist, and he was the director of the school's master of sacred music program. Emily met her Indigo Girls bandmate Amy Ray in elementary school. They eventually started performing together, and in 1981, they recorded a demo. After graduating from Shamrock High School, Saliers enrolled at Tulane University. Ray attended Vanderbilt University, but by 1985, both women had transferred to Atlanta's Emory University, and they subsequently formed the Indigo Girls. Emily earned a bachelor's degree in English in 1985.

Indigo Girls

Indigo Girls released their debut album, "Strange Fire," in 1987, and it reached #159 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and was certified Gold. In 1989, they released a self-titled album, which reached #22 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and #64 on the Australian ARIA Charts. The album was certified 2× Platinum in the U.S., and the single "Closer to Fine" did well on the "Billboard" charts, peaking at #52 on the Hot 100 chart, #26 on the Alternative Airplay chart, and #48 on the Adult Contemporary and Mainstream Rock charts. In 1990, Indigo Girls released the album "Nomads Indians Saints," which went Gold and reached #43 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. Their next two albums, 1992's "Rites of Passage" and 1994's "Swamp Ophelia," were certified Platinum and reached #21 and #9, respectively, on the "Billboard" 200 chart. Both albums also charted in Australia, and "Swamp Ophelia" charted in the U.K. as well. The single "Galileo" from "Rites of Passage" reached #89 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and #10 on the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart. In 1997, they released the Gold album "Shaming of the Sun," which reached #7 on the "Billboard" 200 chart and peaked at #81 in the U.K. and #83 in Australia. Their next three albums, 1999's "Come on Now Social," 2002's "Become You," and 2004's "All That We Let In," reached the top 40 on the "Billboard" 200 chart. In 2006, Indigo Girls were featured on the Pink single "Dear Mr. President," which was a top 10 hit in six countries and was certified 3× Platinum in Australia and Platinum in Austria and Germany.

The duo's tenth studio album, 2006's "Despite Our Differences," reached #47 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, and 2009's "Poseidon and the Bitter Bug" peaked at #29 on that chart. Their 2010 holiday album, "Holly Happy Days," reached #4 on the "Billboard" Folk Albums chart and #20 on the "Billboard" Independent Albums chart. In 2011, they released "Beauty Queen Sister," which reached #36 on the "Billboard" 200 chart, #2 on the Folk Albums chart, #9 on the Independent Albums chart, and #14 on the Top Rock Albums chart. The 2015 album "One Lost Day" reached the top 10 on the "Billboard" Top Rock Albums, Independent Albums, and Folk Albums charts, and 2020's "Look Long" reached #2 on the Folk Albums chart and #7 on the UK Americana Albums chart. In 2004, Saliers composed the score for the short film "One Weekend a Month," and in 2017, she released the solo album "Murmuration Nation." She co-owned the Atlanta restaurant Watershed until 2018, and she was an initial investor in the Flying Biscuit Cafe, which opened in Atlanta in 1993 and has since opened several more locations in Georgia and expanded to Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.

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Personal Life

On August 20, 2013, Emily married her longtime girlfriend, Tristin Chipman, who formerly served as the Indigo Girls' tour manager, at New York City Hall. The couple welcomed their daughter, Cleo, in  November 2012. Saliers was passionate about wine collecting and had around 2,000 bottles in her wine cellar, but in 2015, she announced that she had given up alcohol. She later said that she got sober in 2011 and called it her "biggest challenge."

Emily helped fund a music room named after her parents at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University.

In 1993, Saliers, Amy Ray, and Winona LaDuke co-founded the nonprofit organization Honor the Earth, which is dedicated to "protecting the lifeways and sovereignty of our Indigenous Relatives across Mother Earth … by investing in our communities and a new generation of organizers through campaigns, research, training, reclaiming our narrative, and providing capacity support in service of all land and life."

Awards and Nominations

Indigo Girls have earned seven Grammy nominations, winning for Best Contemporary Folk Recording for their self-titled album in 1990. They were also nominated for Best New Artist that year, and their other nominations were for Best Contemporary Folk Recording for "Hammer and a Nail" (1991) and Best Contemporary Folk Album for "Back on the Bus, Y'all" (1992), "Rites of Passage" (1993), "Swamp Ophelia" (1995), and "Shaming of the Sun" (1998). In 2003, they received a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Music Album for "Become You," and in 2019, they won a Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. In 2022, the duo was honored with a Spirit of Americana/Free Speech Award at the Americana Music Honors & Awards, and they were inducted into the Women Songwriters Hall of Fame.

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