R-N-B LEGEND VESTA PASSES AWAY

[JumpinJack AJ]

I was introduced to Vesta by her many appearances on The Arsenio Hall Show back in the early 90's. I didn't follow her incredibly closely but the sad news still hit me hard. She truly is a legend to soul music.

Vesta Williams Found Dead at 47

Posted on 23 Sep 2011 at 4:56am By Danny Fein

Reportedly, R & B Singer Vesta Williams has been found dead in a L.A. hotel room, we are trying to confirm.
The 47 year old singer had a huge hit with Congratulations. According to reports, she was announced dead on September 22nd, 2011.
Stay tuned for more information as the story develops.
About Vesta:
Vesta Williams (born 1963, Coshocton, Ohio) was an American R&B singer. She was sometimes credited by her full name and sometimes simply as Vesta. She was known for her full four-octave voice range.
The daughter of a disc jockey, Williams began performing at an early age as a stand up comic and singer in high school. Her family moved from Ohio to Los Angeles in the 1960s. Williams and her sisters once appeared on the television show Jack and Jill as The Williams Sisters. She returned to Ohio in 1977 and sang in her cousin’s band in Dayton, but soon went back to Los Angeles to launch a solo career.
Former Fifth Dimension member Ron Townsend put Williams in his band Wild Honey. She eventually became a highly sought after studio singer with stints with Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight and Stephanie Mills. Williams sang on the original version of Joe Sample’s “The Survivor”, and met producer David Crawford while working with his group Klique. She scored her first record deal in 1986 with A&M records which released her first self entitled album Vesta. The album featured her first Top 10 R&B hit “Once Bitten, Twice Shy”.
Her 1988 album, Vesta 4U, produced the quiet storm singles “Congratulations” and “Sweet Sweet Love”. The up-tempo dance track “4 U” also hit the R&B Top 10. In 1991, Williams released the album Special and the title track as a single. Both became her biggest charters. Her next album, Everything-N-More, was not as successful and she soon left A&M. She continued to be a popular session singer, landing regular spots on albums by such artists as Phil Perry, Howard Hewett and George Duke.
In 2007 she released an album of R&B classics on the Shanachie label titled Distant Lover. Produced by Chris “Big Dog” Davis, it features songs originally recorded by Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, Sade and Deniece Williams.

[bigted]

Rest In Peace

[VIsqo]

RIP Vesta

[JumpinJack AJ]

Vesta Williams, Hit 80's R&B Singer, Found Dead In Her California Hotel Room



First Posted: 9/23/11 09:36 AM ET Updated: 9/23/11 05:41 PM ET





[uPDATED AT @2:34 PM]
Vesta Williams, the diva known for her powerful voice and 80's hits, was found dead in her California hotel room last night, according to reports. Though news sources have reported the singer was 48 years old, Williams can be seen in a 2010 interview saying she was 53.
TMZ is reporting that bottles of prescription pills were found in the hotel room, and that the authorities are treating the singer's death as an accident or suicide.
Williams scored a big hit with "Congratulations," a song about a woman who is distraught upon learning that her former lover is getting married. "Congratulations," with its vocal acrobatics and dramatic story, became a talent show staple.
Jackeé Harry, the television actress, tweeted her condolences about the singer's passing.

"...just received truly devastating news: R&B great, and my friend of many yrs, Vesta Williams (@vesta4u), has passed away. #RIPVesta"

In the 1990s, Williams made headlines for her dramatic weight loss. She told Ebony that she started to rapidly gain weight when her singing career began to falter. Williams, who was 5-foot-3, eventually reached a size 26. She said her size was the reason she lost her recording contract.
"When I lost my record deal and my phone wasn't ringing, I realized that I had to reassess who Vesta was and figure out what was going wrong," she said. "I knew it wasn't my singing ability. So it had to be that I was expendable because I didn't have the right look."
The singer went on to lose 100 lbs, and got down down to a size 6, while finding something of a second career as a songwriter and session singer.
In recent years, Williams had become an advocate for the prevention of childhood obesity and juvenile diabetes.

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This is one of those artists that I've always liked and always INTENDED on getting their music but for the most part, never did. I have two of her albums. She truly was an amazing talent that simply didn't get any shine in the last decade-plus.