McDonald was born on 22 November 1958 in
Newport on Tay,
Fife,
Scotland and grew up in
Anstruther, also in Fife. In the 1980s, she
toured with
Tina Turner and
BB King. She has been performing with her band since 1990 and has nine studio albums to date. McDonald toured in March 2011, playing an
acoustic set. McDonald appeared on the 2012
charity single 'It Does Get Better' created by The L Project. The single benefitted
LGBT charities and was written in response to the
suicide of LGBT teenagers. She performed a one-off show at the Glasgow's
Barrowland Ballroom on 2 March 2013 with the
Scottish Chamber Orchestra to celebrate the 20th anniversary of her album ''God's Home Movie
and the release of her 9th studio album, HOME''. In January 2013 she
married her long-term partner, Alanna, in
Lanark, where she lived as a teenager. Her portrait was painted by
Roxana Halls in 2019. It was acquired by the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, where it now hangs. ==Discography==