Cole told CBS News in 2006 that her father saw star quality in her early on.
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An accomplished performer in her own right with hits including “This Will Be” and “Inseparable”, Natalie, of course, was also the daughter of jazz legend Nat King Cole. Treatment for that disease led to the deterioration of her kidneys and she frequently needed dialysis in the last few years of her life.
The TMZ celebrity news website said Cole, who worked in the R&B, soul and pop genres, died from congestive heart failure following complications from a kidney transplant and Hepatitis C, diagnosed in 2008. “Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived … with dignity, strength and honor”, her sisters, Timolin Cole and Casey Cole, and son, Robert Yancy, said in the statement.
“I had to hold back the tears. She was one of the greatest singers of our time”.
A number of prominent artists took to social media to express their grief and appreciation of Cole.
“A voice from heaven has been called home”, Cher tweeted.
Cole was set to make her Broadway debut in 2014 as a guest star in Warren Carlyle’s After Midnight, following in the footsteps of Fantasia Barrino, Vanessa Williams, and Patti LaBelle, from August 5-31. A second movie, Livin’ for Love: The Natalie Cole Story premiered on television December 10, 2000, she starred as herself. Just as we should talk more about the brilliance of acts like Natalie Cole, we should also talk more about the work of her peer acts like The Pointer Sisters and Minnie Riperton and a whole host of other talents who too often get pushed under the radar. Included were some of the late Nat “King” Cole’s greatest songs. Her most recent release, “Natalie Cole en Espanol”, came out in 2013, marking her first Spanish-language album. As a young woman, she had listened to Franklin and Janis Joplin and for years was reluctant to perform her father’s material.
Natalie famously battled with drug addiction after the tragic loss of several family members – including her father, mother and sister, Cookie.
Her album, “Unforgettable… With Love”, won the Grammy for Album of the Year and has sold more than seven million copies in the United States.
The hits helped Cole win the prestigious Grammy for Best New Artist, one of a total of nine Grammys she earned throughout her career.
Her voice was overlaid with her dad’s in the title cut, offering a delicate duet a quarter-century after his death.
“I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t believe it. Because she’s one of my favorites”, said fan Kim Lyons. The song topped both the Billboard R&B and Adult Contemporary charts in the U.S., as well as reaching No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.
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“The best gift”, she told Jet magazine in 1992.
