From Rufus to solo hits, her gospel-trained power shaped generations of singers.
If you need one song to frame her, try 'Tell Me Something Good', it's all there. For something later, 'Ain't Nobody' holds up just as well.
When you hear 'Tell Me Something Good' or 'Ain't Nobody,' you're hearing a voice that could bend funk into something both raw and polished. She worked with Stevie Wonder and Prince, but her own delivery, that mix of church power and streetwise soul, is what kept her on radio playlists from the 1970s through the 1980s. It's a sound that's been borrowed by plenty of vocalists who came after her.
She started singing in a Chicago church choir, then joined Rufus in her late teens. The band's hits like 'Tell Me Something Good' gave way to solo tracks like 'Ain't Nobody' and 'I Feel for You' in the 1980s. She's been open about personal struggles with addiction and relationships along the way.
Keep it compact: a lyric you come back to, a live memory, or the part of the catalog you would point someone toward first.
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