Jazz singer Nancy Wilson dies at 81, Twitter mistakes her for Heart rocker -

Publish date: 2024-05-03

Jan 24, 2024 Carisa Kissane

Legendary jazz singer Nancy Wilson — a three-time Grammy Award-winning “song stylist” — died after a long illness at her California home, her manager and publicist Devra Hall Levy said. She was 81.

Her cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

Wilson, who had been living in Pioneertown, a desert community near Joshua Tree National Park, was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Feb. 20, 1937 — and began her musical journey singing for a local church.

She launched a career as an R&B singer with the 1961 single “Guess Who I Saw Today.” However, one of her biggest hits was in 1964 with “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am.” It landed her a Grammy Award for best R&B recording.

She later moved to singing jazz and torch songs and eventually snagged two more Grammy Awards in 2005 and 2007, respectively.

She retired from touring in 2011.

Her death, however, sparked brief confusion on Twitter over who had actually died. After the Associated Press posted late Thursday that Nancy Wilson died, fans of the rock band Heart assumed it was Nancy Lamoureaux Wilson, 64.

One user tweeted their condolences to Anne Wilson, the sister of Nancy Lamoureaux Wilson. “Good god I love Heart, had no idea she was that old. I hope Ann is doing ok, tough to lose a sister.” To clarify for people still confused on Twitter, Nancy Lamoureaux Wilson is 64 years old and is very much alive.

Another person wrote, “Guys, would you consider Nancy Wilson from Heart an 81-yr-old jazz singer? Think, people, think!”

Nancy Wilson famously referred to herself as a “song stylist,” as she refused to be pigeonholed into one specific music category. “The music that I sing today was the pop music of the 1960s,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle in 2010.

“I just never considered myself a jazz singer. I do not do runs and — you know. I take a lyric and make it mine. I consider myself an interpreter of the lyric.”

Wilson did a cover of “The Christmas Waltz,” a song originally written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne for Frank Sinatra. She was best known for songs such as her breakthrough “Guess Who I Saw Today” and the hit ”(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am,” which drew upon Broadway, pop and jazz.

In the 1990s, Wilson became the host of National Public Radio’s “Jazz Profiles,” a documentary series featuring jazz legends and their music legacy.

In 2004, she was awarded a “Jazz Masters Fellowship” for lifetime achievement by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Wilson was married twice — to drummer Kenny Dennis, whom she divorced in 1970, and to Wiley Burton, who died in 2008. She had three children.

Wilson is survived by her three children and five grandchildren. There will be no funeral service, as per her wishes, a family statement said. However, her family will pay tribute to the iconic entertainer and hold a celebration of her life.

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