Singer Natalie Cole dies, aged 65

Natalie Cole. Pic: Calliopejen / Wikimedia Commons

The multiple Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and daughter of Nat King Cole dies in Los Angeles following ongoing health issues

Singer Natalie Cole, the daughter of Nat King Cole and a songwriter in her own right, has died at the age of 65. A family statement, reported by the Associated Press, explained that Cole died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on the night of 31 December 2015, due to complications from ongoing health issues.

The AP also confirmed a written statement from her son Robert Yancy and sisters Timolin and Casey Cole read: “Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived … with dignity, strength and honor. Our beloved Mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain UNFORGETTABLE in our hearts forever.”

Born in 1950, her father was one of the most accomplished singers and jazz musicians of the postwar era, and her mother, Maria Hawkins Cole, was a singer in the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Cole initially rose to musical success in the mid–1970s as an R&B artist when she made her recording debut with Inseparable and won two Grammy awards — one for Best New Artist and one for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for her hit This Will Be (An Everlasting Love).

However, Natalie Cole’s greatest success came with her 1991 album, Unforgettable … With Love, which paid tribute to her father with reworked versions of some of his best-known songs, including That Sunday That Summer, Too Young and Mona Lisa. The release won six Grammy awards, including Album Of The Year and Song Of The Year for the title track, on which her voice was remixed with her father’s, 25 years after his death.

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