Grammy victor Natalie Cole dead at age 65

Unfortunately, her appearance in the production was canceled when the show closed on June 29.

“Natalie Cole, sister beloved & of substance and sound”. “Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived – with dignity, strength and honour”. In a tweet, actress Marlee Matlin called Cole a lovely songbird and a great actress, writing “she is now singing in heaven”. So it was this really interesting kind of reconciliation moment of Natalie Cole, the daughter of pop royalty, singing with her father in this really touching and sentimental way.

Singer Natalie Cole holds the Grammy award for the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for “Still Unforgettable” during the 51st annual Grammy in Los Angeles on Feb 8, 2009.

Natalie Cole attends SeriousFun Children’s Network’s New York City Gala at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center on March 2, 2015 in New York City.

The daughter of Nat King Cole, Natalie rose to musical success in the mid-1970s as an R&B artist with the hits “This Will Be”, “Inseparable“, and “Our Love“. Over a career spanning almost four decades, she was a master of material ranging from contemporary pop and R&B ballads to dance music to the standards that had been her father’s turf.

Her career reached the superstar level in 1991 when she recorded “Unforgettable…”

In a 2000 autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder, Cole related how she struggled with depression, most painfully after the death of her father and the near-drowning of her son in a swimming pool.

“I thank my dad for leaving me such a wonderful, wonderful heritage”, Cole said in accepting her awards. Still, her all-markets approach to jazz-pop fusion, not entirely dissimilar from artists like Brenda Russell and Oleta Adams, helped pave a path for future stars in the jazz-pop field like Vanessa Williams, Queen Latifah and, I’d venture, even later mainstream acts ranging from Michael Bublé to tuxedo-clad Rod Stewart.

The album sold some 14 million copies and won six Grammys, including album of the year as well record and song of the year for the title track duet.

In 1983, she spent several months at the Hazelden Clinic in Minnesota and, with her health intact, released her come-back album, Dangerous, in 1985. I Love Natalie Cole so he’d man. One of the first childhood idols I got to…

Cole was only 11 when she first sang professionally, with her father. Cole said she had begun experimenting with heroin while at University of MA at Amherst.

But she was happiest touring and performing live. She was married three times.

Her own life saved, Cole was devastated at the loss of her sister, but grateful to the family of the woman whose kidney she received.

– La Toya Jackson (@latoyajackson) January 1, 2016 Sending prayers and condolences to all the loved ones of my friend #NatalieCole!