Melanie Safka
Woodstock singer has died aged 76
A life for music: Melanie Safka toured almost every year and was working on a new album shortly before her death.
© Debby Wong/Shutterstock.com
Melanie Safka died at the age of 76. The singer gave a legendary performance in Woodstock in 1969.
The American singer Melanie Safka died on Tuesday at the age of 76. She scored hits with songs like “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” and performed at Woodstock in 1969.
Your children write: “We are heartbroken”
Her three children Lelilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred announced the sad news. Her record label Cleopatra is also said to have confirmed the folk singer’s death. “This is the hardest post for us and there are so many things we want to say first and there is no easy way but to say it… Mom passed peacefully from this world to the next on January 23rd “, her children shared in one Facebook statement with.
The long text continued: “We are heartbroken, but would like to thank each and every one of you for the affection you show our mother and tell you that she loved you all so much!” The children reflect on the abilities of their famous mother, who performed under the name Melanie: “She was one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of her time, and every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected that contrary.”
No information was initially given about the cause of death, but the record label mentioned it according to People a disease”.
At the age of 22, she enchanted festival visitors – in the rain
Melanie was born in February 1947 in Astoria, New York. She was interested in music from an early age and learned to play the ukulele at the age of six. However, she originally wanted to become an actress and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1967 she met her future manager, producer and husband Peter Schekeryk. She released two singles, “Beautiful People” and “Garden in the City”, after signing with her first record label, Columbia Records. According to her most recent record label, Cleopatra, she left Columbia Records in 1968 and moved to Buddah Records, where she released her debut LP.
The following year, when the singer was 22, she performed at the legendary Woodstock festival – in a historic line-up that included Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix and The Grateful Dead. A moment that she would never forget, even decades later: “The horror kept building up inside me,” she said she told the Associated Press in 2019. “The thought that I was going to perform in front of all these people and this huge stage – I was all alone. Then it started raining and I really believed that everyone was going to get up and go home.” But the people stayed and waved candles in the darkness – and Melanie sang and went down in music history with her goosebumps performance. It was a coincidence: she had stood in for the Incredible String Band, who didn’t want to perform in the pouring rain.
She was working on her 32nd album
In 1971, Melanie Safka was named Billboard’s best-selling female artist of the year in the United States after releasing several hits, including “Lay Down” and a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Ruby Tuesday.” Melanie then founded her own record label, Neighborhood Records, and released her single “Brand New Key”, which became a hit.
Melanie was active until the end. She toured almost every year and was working on her 32nd album, a tribute album tentatively titled Second Hand Smoke, before her death in Nashville. In addition, she wanted to reissue her previous albums with the Cleopatra label. The live album “One Night Only” from 1984 will be released first. As People reported, her children will now ensure that it is published posthumously.