Natalie Cole, Dead At 65

Yet over a long career, Cole recorded a broad selection of material, including Tin Pan Alley staples, songs written for her and songs by, among others, Fiona Apple and Bruce Springsteen.

She took that star quality and put it to good use, joining her dad for the first time onstage at the tender age of 11.

When Cole was 15, and attending boarding school across the country, her father died of lung cancer.

“I didn’t realise how close I was to checking out”, Cole told the Los Angeles Times in 2008. Yet she was about to find her own voice.

The statement was signed by Cole’s only child, Robert Yancey, and her twin sisters, Timolin and Casey Cole. That album included one of her biggest hits, “This Will Be”, which earned her her first Grammy award.

For Cole, the duet was a way to recconect with her father after years of trying to get away from him as an artist. But her legacy remains, well, unforgettable. Cole battled an addiction to heroine and crack and spent six months in rehab in 1983.

Her final Grammy came in 2009 for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Still Unforgettable.

Her recovery began later in the decade with the album “Everlasting” and reached multiplatinum heights with her 1991 album, “Unforgettable…” She was a lovely and generous person who will be greatly missed’.

Natalie Cole’s health remained tentative from that point on, sadly ironic in that breakthrough hepatitis-C-specific drug treatments that can cure less advanced stages of the disease have recently gone on the market.

At some point in the past, however, given her history of substance abuse, Cole had contracted hepatitis-C, ultimately forcing her to undergo a kidney transplant when the chemotherapy she was undergoing caused a kidney to fail.

The singer released twenty three studio albums during her lifetime, in which seven ranked gold and four ranked platinum in the United States.

While we did discuss her debut UAE performance, heavier issues weighed on her mind. “With Love” won, too. Exuberant, piano-thumping, gospel-influenced pop, 1975’s “This Will Be” is her best work, and it still sounds like the musical equivalent of a sunshower (though it’s become annoyingly associated with eHarmony commercials).

The next year, she underwent a kidney transplant.

“To have your life saved by someone you don’t even know – oh, God”. Her jazzy voice telling stories that only one would dare of hearing made people dream again, and put music back into the bloodstream of their everyday life.

“I said “You’re here one day, doing two shows” Sichko said. Still, no acting roles eclipse her love and passion for music.

She was touring up until this fall when she cancelled all of her November and December concerts due to health problems.