In 2013 hit songwriter Shelly Peiken was wondering if there was still room for her in the youth driven music business. When she started out as a wide-eyed 20-something just about all her collaborators were the same age. Many years later, she was having hot flashes while they programmed “backing tracks.”

There is heart as well as humor in Shelly’s stories of a modern music business where the creative process can’t exist without computers, many hit songs list 10 writers, and pop stars compile albums from material written at “song camps.” Shelly comes out on top however, with the realization that nothing stays the same; and with acceptance and some adjustment there is still meaningful, purposeful work to be done and room for her after all. And then she wrote a book about it! The audio version of Confessions of a Serial Songwriter received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. Shelly is taking it on the road this summer via “Living Room Live”—a one hour house concert where she shares her career journey through song & monologue.

Two-time Grammy-nominated songwriter Shelly Peiken has been a prolific, behind-the-scenes force in the music business for more than two decades. Her songs have sold in excess of 50 million records. She is best known for penning culturally resonant, female-empowerment anthems such as Christina Aguilera’s No. 1 hit, “What a Girl Wants” and Meredith Brooks’ smash, “Bitch.” Her book Confessions of a Serial Songwriter, a memoire that chronicles her journey from a young girl falling under the spell of magical songs to writing hits of her own, earned her a second GRAMMY nomination for Best Spoken Word Album. Shelly is a fierce advocate of creators’ rights with her grassroots organization, SONA (Songwriters of North America). She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter and 2 cats.