By Ali Ikram
To say US folk singer and activist Michelle Shocked was discovered by accident is an understatement.
Twenty-five years ago, a British journalist recorded Shocked playing by a campfire. He released the material back home without her knowledge and it topped the independent charts.
Others would be angry at that, but the teenager saw the break as a platform to talk worker and women's rights.
"I had my own sense of my direction as a political activist and I knew it was an opportunity," Shocked says.
Proving how radical she was, at 22 she underwent sterilisation, she says in part so she could offer a unique perspective on America's deeply divisive abortion debate.
Shocked is also, not surprisingly, rather political. Some of her biggest political songs are disguised as sentimental songs.
The 49-year-old is currently in New Zealand as part of her worldwide tour, and will perform in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch on the April 12, 14 and 15 respectively.
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