Category Archives: Music

Etta James

21 Saturday Jan 2012

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In 1938 Etta James’ mother was an unmarried 14 year old girl who despite her challenging start to motherhood ensured her daughter received professional vocal training by the age of five years. In her teens Etta’s family moved to San Francisco, a city she confessed brought out her wild side leading to dabblings with girl gangs. By 14 years she was in a doo-wop singing trio auditioning for Johnny Otis. Her apparent talent soon eclipsed the other girls and over the following years she toured the country with stars such as Little Richard, Marvin Gaye and Chuck Berry.

Despite this encouraging start Etta had become a heroin addict before her 21st birthday and spent many years in and out of an LA psychiatric hospital. These difficult years of addiction involved many occurrences of petty crime but she eventually beat her addiction. During the 1980s Etta became a gay icon singing on its vibrant club scene. She became widely known for her exuberant version of Muddy Waters song ‘I Just Wanna Make Love to You’ a song which earned her a new surge of popularity in addition to a Top 10 hit in the late 90s.

Yet her biggest success was as a blues and R&B singer where her contralto vocal range had impressive power and texture. She hinted that perhaps it was this strength of voice that helped her overcome her addition and demons “When I perform, I’m somewhere else. I go back in time and get in touch with who I really am. I forget my troubles, my worries.”

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