Loleatta Holloway seriously ill

[RetroRuss]

I've heard via freinds of Facebook that Loleatta Holloway is gravely ill and lies in a come following a heart attack. I'm sure everyone here will want to know and that our thoughts are with her and her family and friends at this grave time.

[SandraDee]

Poor lady. I knew that she was diabetic but this is awful news. I'm sure that Dayna who sometimes visits this forum knows her so hopefully she could pass on that our thoughts are with her.

[langlang]

a true disco superstar and diva in every positive sense of the word. i feel she never really got her just due. thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family.

[Dayna]

Loleatta passed away today..
It's so Sad..What a loss and such a wonderful soul..

[remicks]

*****

oh, no.

(cry)

*****

[boogienights]

This is terrible.What a powerful voice she had.I first heard it as a kid on the Black Box song.But as I got into disco, I discovered her amazing work on Salsoul. "We're Getting Stronger, The Longer We Stay Together", "Hit and Run", "Love Sensation", such terrific songs. I think she is one of THE voices of disco, where she is as important as the producers/musicians.Sad.

[SandraDee]

i feel she never really got her just due.

History will show what a unique talent she was. Artists like her don't always get the recognition during their lifetime but often they get the mass recognition decades later.

[discodisco]

A True Legend....R.I.P.
I saw her perform at Splash In NYC.. she was awesome... what a powerhouse!
God Bless you...
EG

[jerrickson]

Holloway was has left an inimitable and indelible imprint on R&B and disco and every performance of hers I saw was enough to make me morn for the state of pop music today.

It is tragic that her blustery and finely balanced voice was many of its grandest stages in songs she was not a part of creating (or which she had not consented to).

It seems that Hollaway was too honest and sincerely intentioned of a person and musician to make big bucks in music, or as she indicated in an interview on this site, to even get paid the royalties she was due for the seemingly perpetual sampling of her hits in songs and movies. That is certainly no crime on her part.

If imitation, or in this case sampling, is the sincerest form of flattery, she should have been thoroughly flattered. Considering that Dan Hartman chose her over Bette Midler and Patti Labelle to make Love Sensation (apparently being totally enamored by Hit and Run), there wasn't any reason for her to look for reverence though.

The fact that Holloway claims that, "I never thought of myself as a good singer" is probably a large part of why she became such an epic one: she sang because she loved to. That sensation of love, is felt in every song she touched.