Such a great voice.... what a loss.

RIP

One of the best renditions ever!

Sad....the 'devils dandruff' strikes again. She was a 'technically' brilliant singer and there can be no doubt she was blessed with a great voice. Not my kind of music really though I must say, and I always felt the 'vocal gymnastics' style of singing to be quite contrived and a little bereft of 'true soul', for me. Its also why I don't particularly like some guitarists who are 'technically' great, but there is not so much true 'feeling' there IMO. You see singers like Mariah Carey Christina Aguilera, etc who had copied this quite shamelessly, but it does not do much for me personally.

She was born to do it though. From a line of musical royalty! Dione Warwick was her cousin, mother Cissy a professional singer, Aretha Franklin her Godmother etc. Give me 'Sister Re' any day of the week, but she definitely left a mark...no doubt.

RIP.

She gave the world
1) Some great songs, and
2) A powerful message: Don't do Drugs.

Is she dead? I must have missed something I didn't know that

I started up SimHQ as the first website of today and saw this thread at once. My second click was on a news website then.

No fan of her, I don't own a CD, but she had a wonderful voice in her days. That is certain. If it really was the drugs which got her I hope other abusers see it as a message.

My most lasting memory of her was the '91 Super Bowl during Desert Storm. I don't think there was a dry eye or a man not standing and saluting the flag.

Very unfortunate, but you can only press the self-destruct button so many times before the human body finally gives up and says, "Okay, if you really mean it."

God bring her little girl peace.

My take on what might have transpired, she was broke and has been for a while. She was being considered for a Judges spot on X-factor a very high paying gig and she and her daughter were out Celebrating. With her past lifestyle she could put away more than enough alcohol as evidenced by witnesses saying she was there late and looked disheveled and intoxicated and even got up and sang at one point ironically, "Jesus Loves Me". So she went back to her Hotel and was in rough shape the next day, took some prescription pills she had to feel better and with so much alcohol already that she laid in the bathtub and expired (which I believe is where they found her), she might even have took more because she couldn't remember taking them before or not but I'm just guessing the Partying did her in even though it was accidental (but aren't they always?) I don't think she purposely OD'd. It's a horrible shame that people who have so much waste it on that lifestyle as empty and ugly as it is and sooner or later it takes it all away. She was a huge talent whether you like d her Music style or not it was certainly undeniable. I'm sure now some group will form some partnership and decry the loss of such talent to drugs and alcohol and makes some PSA's but it won't do any good the business is the problem, it just eats them up.

Wunderball, just a wonderful singer she was. I can't really say she wasted a gift because at 48 she had already given the world some amazing music. RIP.