Molly-Ann Leikin came to California from Canada with her baritone ukulele to become a songwriter in Hollywood at a time when women were rare in the field. She was told that nobody listens to lyrics. She was told she wasn’t beautiful, so no one would want her. But she refused to leave. She’d go on to go on to become an award-winning songwriter, with her songs recorded by pop and country artists on the Billboard charts.
For ten years, Molly was a staff writer at three major music publishing companies. She wrote themes and songs for over six-dozen TV shows and movies, including Violet, which won an Oscar. Molly was nominated for an Emmy, and her songs have been recorded by everyone from Katy Perry to Placido Domingo, Cher, Tina Turner, Anne Murray, Glen Campbell, John Travolta and even Yitzy Ya Ya and the Yo Yo’s.
Recently, Molly collaborated with Katy Perry on the “I Love Local Business in the 805” song, and wrote the official English language lyric for Hatikvah, the National Anthem of Israel. Molly is the author of eight books on songwriting. Although single, she is wait-listed, once again, for Brad Pitt.
Thank you, Betsy, for inviting me to be your guest today. I lived in a beautiful house on a private street in Santa Barbara where three homeowners had white mail boxes stacked together. I asked my gardener to take one little string of morning glories and wrap it around my mailbox. Soon, it took over the other two, and was gorgeous. People would come by from the Santa Barbara Beautiful Awards and photograph those mailboxes. But one of my neighbors, who had control issues, used to take great delight in chopping those flowers down to the quick. Nonetheless, they grew right back. I guess that’s what we were discussing during our interview – you can’t stop something beautiful when it knows what it’s supposed to be. Blessings.
Congratulations to TMGP on this very interesting interview.
Nice to hear your voice MAWC.