Danielle Maggio

Danielle Maggio is a writer, educator, vocalist, and vinyl DJ from Pittsburgh, PA. She is the forthcoming author of Game Is Her Middle Name: The Life and Music of Betty Davis (in press with The Feminist Press for US/Canada and White Rabbit Books for the UK) and the liner notes author for Light In The Attic Record’s CD/LP reissues of Betty Davis, They Say I’m Different, and Crashin’ From Passion. She is an Adjunct Professor at Duquesne University and the University of Pittsburgh where she teaches courses on Global Pop and World Music. She has presented her research at the Society for Ethnomusicology, American Musicological Society, Society for American Music, Association for Recorded Sound Collections, Dayton Funk Symposium, Pop Con, and the Cultural Studies Association. She holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from the University of Pittsburgh.

As an avid vinyl enthusiast she enjoys DJing from her personal collection under the moniker Sauce Queen, blending old school LPs that span funk, R&B, disco, jazz-fusion, and global rhythms to curate a lush, soulful vibe. As a vocalist she has performed with jazz fusion acts (Afro Yaqui Music Collective), reggae bands (Truth and Rites), hip hop artists (Brittney Chantele), neo-funk musicians (Matthew Alemore), and accomplished stage directors (Nathan Brewer). In 2019, she sang lead vocals on the first new song written and produced by Betty Davis in forty years - a sultry pop-hybrid of soul, blues, Latin, and jazz - called “A Little Bit Hot Tonight.”

• Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
• M.A, University of Pittsburgh
• B.A., Columbia College Chicago

• Betty Davis
• Soul and Funk
• Music of the African diaspora
• Feminist music history
• Queer music history