Etta James

Etta James is an American R&B, soul, jazz singer, and one of the biggest singers of soul music. She’s been active since the late 50’s.

She is famous for her hit songs such as “At Last”, “Tell Mama”.

She was born in 1938 and grew up in Los Angeles and as she was going to church, she started to sing gospel as a member of a choir there.

When she turned 14, she signed a contract with the Modern Records. She has some hit songs during this time such as ‘Wallflower (Dance with me, Henry)’, which reached #1 on the R&B charts.

After six years later in1960, she transferred to Chess Records, where she spent the longest time and released the most successful records in her career.

Her music style has changed though her career. She was promoted as a R&B and doo wop singer in the mid 50’s, but she turned to perform traditional pop songs covering jazz and pop music as she signed a contract with Chess Records.

She’s been successful as a singer from the early days, however she was drug addict as well, therefore she was not active in 80’s. But she still has an impact on today’s music industry. In a movie “Cadillac Records”(2008) , Beyonce played the part of her.  She also won some Grammies, and her name is inscribed in Hollywood’s walk of fame.

This year 2011, she released new album “The Dreamer” and announced her retirement.

She died of leukemia on January 20, 2012 and her funeral was hold in California on January 28.