The R&B songstress reportedly died of congestive heart failure at a Los Angeles hospital after suffering from a series of health issues. “Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived.with dignity, strength and honour”.
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The family added, “Our beloved mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever”.
By showing off her always impressive voice and treating the material with respect, she delivered the biggest album of her career – “Unforgettable” sold seven million copies and won three Grammys, including Album and Record of the Year.
Her first run of success in the 1970s was followed by struggles with heroin, alcohol and crack cocaine addiction in the early 1980s, a period she wrote about in her 2000 autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder. She was beloved by many fans and followers, and was doing her best to carry on her father’s legacy. Her melodic voice and “Unforgettable'” duets she performed with her father through the magic of technology honored her father and introduced a whole new generation to the beauty of the standards. “With Love”, a virtual duet made with her late father.
Whatever life threw at Natalie Cole, she kept coming back. But it wasn’t long for the hereditary music bug hit and she found herself in a recording studio to release her debut album, 1975’s classic Inseperable. In 2010, the Society of Singers awarded her the Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions towards music. In 1974, Ms. Cole was signed to Capitol Records, her father’s recording label.
“Somewhere up in Heaven, there’s got to be an exclusive club”, he says, “where Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee and Nat King Cole are welcoming Natalie right now with open arms”.
The statement was signed by Cole’s only child, Robert Yancey, and her twin sisters, Timolin and Casey Cole.
Cole often appeared with her father on stage and sang along with him.
Below is a video of Cole’s live performance of her 1979 hit song, Sophisticated Lady.
“Her life was not an easy one, but she managed to face the challenges that plagued her earlier success and emerged out of these difficulties as a greater musician and more enduring star”.
“I think that I am a walking testimony that you can have scars”, she told CBS’s Sunday Morning in 2006.
Prior to her death, Cole had to cancel many of her shows due to constant illness. Her best-known album to date, Unforgettable… “Some of his own techniques, his phrasing, timing and arrangement were so different than any other singer at that time”, she said.
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FILE – In a Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009 file photo, Natalie Cole holds the best instrumental arrangement accompanying vocalist award backstage at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, in Los Angeles.
