Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred wrote in a Facebook post: “This is the hardest post for us to write, there are so many things that we want to say first and there is no other choice but to just write… Mom passed away peacefully from this world to eternity on January 23, 2024. They added:
We are devastated, but we want to thank each of you for the love you have for our mother and tell you that she loved you all very much! She was one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of all time. Every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected this.
Melanie is dead. The children ask for a symbolic farewell
“Our world is much darker, the colors of dreary, rainy Tennessee fade due to her absence today, but we know that she is still here, smiling down on us all, on all of you, from above,” her children said goodbye to the singer. They also asked those who would like to say goodbye to her to light candles in honor of their mother, as it was her 1970 song “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” that catapulted her to fame.
The song is about her experience performing at Woodstock the previous year when she was 22 years old. She was a relatively unknown singer at the time and performed “Birthday of the Sun” on stage. She recalled that she was afraid to go on the stage she shared with artists such as Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix and the Grateful Dead. In one of the interviews, she said that – just like in the song – when it started raining, she “truly believed that everyone would get up and go home.”
She achieved success when she founded the first independent label in rock history run by a woman
Melanie sang songs such as “Peace Will Come”, “What Have They Done to My Song Ma” (recently sung by Miley Cyrus) and a cover of the Rolling Stones “Ruby Tuesday”. The label she founded, Neighborhood Records, according to her agents, was the first independent label in rock history run by a woman. Her first self-released song, “Brand New Key”, topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in December 1971 and January 1972. Billboard also named her the best-selling artist in the US in 1971.
She had recently signed to Los Angeles-based label Cleopatra and was working on an album of her previous hits to be re-released. The album “Second Hand Smoke” was also in preparation, which would be her 32nd album.
In 1968, Melanie married music producer and manager Peter Schekeryk and gave birth to three children. In their farewell post, the children described her as “an extraordinary woman who was a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend to so many.”
Melanie had Ukrainian and Italian roots. She was born on February 3, 1947 in New York. She has been compared to Bob Dylan. In 1989, she received an Emmy (together with composer Lee Holdridge) for “The First Time I Loved Forever”, a song from the series “Beauty and the Beast”.
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
