Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins; January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012) was an American singer whose style spanned a variety of music genres including blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. Starting her career in the mid-1950s, she gained fame with hits such as "Dance With Me, Henry", "At Last", "Tell Mama", and "I'd Rather Go Blind" for which she claimed she wrote the lyrics.[1] She faced a number of personal problems, including drug addiction, before making a musical resurgence in the late 1980s with the album The Seven Year Itch.[2]
James is regarded as having bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and is the winner of six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001, and the Grammy Hall of Fame in both 1999 and 2008.[3] Rolling Stone
ranked James number 22 on their list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All
Time and number 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists.[4][5]
Personal life
James encountered a string of legal problems during the early 1970s
due to her heroin addiction. She was continuously in and out of
rehabilitation centers, including the Tarzana Rehabilitation Center, in
Los Angeles, California. Her husband Artis Mills, whom she married in
1969, accepted responsibility when they were both arrested for heroin
possession and served a 10-year prison sentence.[40] He was released from prison in 1982 and was still married to James at her death.[17]
She was also arrested around the same time for her drug addiction,
accused of cashing bad checks, forgery and possession of heroin.[41]
In 1974, James was sentenced to drug treatment instead of serving time
in prison. She was in the Tarzana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months, at
age 36, and went through a great struggle at the start of treatment.
She later stated in her autobiography that the time she spent in the
hospital changed her life. However, after leaving treatment, her
substance abuse continued into the 1980s, after she developed a
relationship with a man who was also using drugs. In 1988, at the age of
50, she entered the Betty Ford Center, in Palm Springs, California, for treatment.[17] In 2010, she received treatment for a dependency on painkillers.[42]
James had two sons, Donto and Sametto. Both started performing with
their mother in 2003—Donto on drums and Sametto on bass guitar.[43]
Beyonce as Etta James in "Cadillac Records" movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1042877/
Awards
From 1989, James received over 30 awards and recognitions from eight different organizations, including the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which organizes the Grammys.
In 1989, the newly formed Rhythm and Blues Foundation
included James in their first Pioneer Awards for artists whose
"lifelong contributions have been instrumental in the development of
Rhythm & Blues music".[44] The following year, 1990, she received an NAACP Image Award, which is given for "outstanding achievements and performances of people of color in the arts";[45] an award she cherished as it "was coming from my own people".[46]
- 1993, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- 2001, Rockabilly Hall of Fame
- 2003, Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Hollywood Walk of Fame, star at 7080 Hollywood Blvd, and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) Lifetime Achievement Award[47]
- 2006, Billboard R&B Founders Award[48]
Grammys
The Grammy Awards are awarded annually by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. James has received six Grammy Awards. Her first was in 1994, when she was awarded Best Jazz Vocal Performance for the album Mystery Lady, which consisted of covers of Billie Holiday songs.[49] Two other albums have also won awards, Let's Roll (Best Contemporary Blues Album) in 2003, and Blues to the Bone (Best Traditional Blues Album) in 2004. Two of her early songs have been given Grammy Hall of Fame Awards for "qualitative or historical significance": "At Last", in 1999,[50] and "The Wallflower (Dance with Me, Henry)" in 2008.[51] In 2003, she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.[52]
She was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal and she died on January 20, 2012, just five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California.[37] The funeral, presided by Reverend Al Sharpton, took place in Gardena, California on January 28, 2012. Singers Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera each gave a musical tribute.[38][39]
She died just three days after Johnny Otis, the man who discovered her in the 1950's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_James
Blues Foundation
The members of the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up in Memphis, Tennessee, to foster the blues and its heritage,[53] have nominated James for a Blues Music Award nearly every year since its founding in 1980; and she has received some form of Blues Female Artist of the Year award 14 times since 1989, continuously from 1999 to 2007.[54] In addition, the albums Life, Love, & The Blues (1999), Burnin' Down The House (2003), and Let's Roll (2004) were awarded Soul/Blues Album of the Year,[54] and in 2001 she was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[49]Illness and death
James was hospitalized in January 2010 to treat an infection caused by MRSA, a bacterium that is resistant to most antibiotic treatment. During her hospitalization, her son Donto revealed that James had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2008, and attributed her previous comments about Beyoncé Knowles to "drug induced dementia".[36]She was diagnosed with leukemia in early 2011. The illness became terminal and she died on January 20, 2012, just five days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital in Riverside, California.[37] The funeral, presided by Reverend Al Sharpton, took place in Gardena, California on January 28, 2012. Singers Stevie Wonder and Christina Aguilera each gave a musical tribute.[38][39]
She died just three days after Johnny Otis, the man who discovered her in the 1950's.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etta_James
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