Joni Sledge, singer famous for disco anthem We Are Family
Born: September 13, 1956;
Died: March 10, 2017
JONI Sledge, who has died aged 60, was a singer and member of the iconic disco band Sister Sledge which had massive hits in the 1970s with anthems such as Lost in Music, He's The Greatest Dancer and their biggest hit We Are Family with its inspiring lyrics "We are family, I got all my sisters with me".
Sledge and her sisters Debbie, Kim and Kathy formed Sister Sledge in 1971, but had their breakout success in 1979 with We Are Family. The dance song became an anthem of unity and women's empowerment and was also adopted by the gay community around the world.
Sledge grew up with her siblings in Philadelphia where her father Edwin was a tap dancer and his wife Florez was an actress. Thanks to their grandmother Viola, who was a former opera singer, they received vocal training when they were very young and were performing by the age of four as Mrs Williams' Grandchildren. Later, they became the Sledge Sisters and then Sister Sledge, reportedly after an MC got their name wrong and they liked the sound of it.
By the early 1970s, they were having some success, but the big breakthrough eluded them. "The four of us had been in the music business for eight years and we were frustrated," said Sledge. "We were saying: 'Well, maybe we should go to college and just become lawyers or something other than music, because it really is tough'."
But then they met Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of the hit group Chic, and their breakout soon followed.
The pair wrote and produced their album We Are Family, and soon the women had their first major hit with disco jam The Greatest Dancer, which became a top 10 hit in May 1979.
Their biggest hit would come a month later with the title track, an infectious dance anthem that celebrated their familial connection with that famous sisterly refrain. It would become their signature hit, and was nominated for a Grammy. Both the song and album sold more than a million copies.
The women also had a hit with a cover of the Mary Wells song My Guy in 1982, but would never duplicate the success they had in the 1970s.
Still, Sister Sledge continued; while sister Kathy left the group for a solo career, the trio of sisters continued to perform and record. They appeared at Glastonbury in 2005, performed for Pope Francis in 2015 and appeared at Brighton Gay Pride last year.
Sledge was found dead in her home by a friend in Phoenix, Arizona, the band's publicist Biff Warren has said. A cause of death has not been determined.
Sledge is survived by a son.
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