Angela Bofill, the singer-songwriter behind hits “I Try,” “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter” and “I’m On Your Side,” has died. She was 70.
The Cuban-Puerto Rican musician died on Thursday at her daughter’s house in Vallejo, California, her good friend and rep Wealthy Engel informed Folks. A reason for demise was not instantly out there. Engel additionally shared the information of her passing on Bofill’s Fb web page in two separate posts.
“ON BEHALF OF MY DEAR FRIEND ANGIE, I AM SADDENED TO ANNOUNCE HER PASSING ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 13TH,” he wrote within the first social media put up, earlier than sharing funeral info.
In the second put up, he added, “JUST TO CLEAR UP THE CONFUSION. ON BEHALF OF SHAUNA BOFILL, HUSBAND CHRIS PORTUGUESE, WE ARE SADDENED BUT MUST REPORT THAT THE PASSING OF ANGELA YESTERDAY IS INDEED TRUE. WE THANK MELBA MOORE AND MAYSA FOR THEIR EARLY CONDOLENCES. THANKS FOR YOUR MANY POSTS.”
Angela Tomasa Bofill was born on Could 2, 1964, in Brooklyn, to a Cuban father and Puerto Rican mom. As a teen, she sang in New York Metropolis’s All Metropolis Refrain, which featured the perfect singers from all excessive colleges within the 5 boroughs. She acquired a bachelor of music diploma from the Manhattan Faculty of Music earlier than starting her skilled profession within the Nineteen Seventies.
In 1978, she was signed by GRP Data and launched her first album, Angie, which was acquired effectively by critics and followers. It included one in all her most iconic hits, “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter,” and the jazz composition, “Under the Moon and Over the Sky.”
Lower than a yr later, she launched her second album, Angel of the Night time, which outperformed the earlier one and included singles “What I What Wouldn’t Do (For the Love of You)” and “I Try,” which Bofill wrote. The artist’s early success along with her albums made her one of many first Latina singers to make it into the R&B and jazz markets.
Her third album, One thing About You, was her first with Arista Data. Narada Michael Walden served as producer on it, and Clive Davis served as the chief. Whereas “Holdin’ Out for Love” and title observe “Something About You” made it into the R&B High 40, the album didn’t carry out in addition to the earlier two and didn’t achieve its try to maneuver her into mainstream music.
Bofill and Walden collaborated on two extra albums — Too Powerful, which featured “I’m On Your Side,” and Teaser — earlier than she moved over to Capitol Data within the Nineteen Eighties and labored with Norman Connors on Instinct. Over the following a number of years, she recorded three extra albums and offered backing vocals for Diana Ross and Kirk Whalum, in addition to Connors’ Eternity.
Previous to her demise, the singer-songwriter suffered two strokes — one in 2006 and the opposite in 2007. Following the primary one, she was paralyzed on her left facet and required speech and bodily remedy. Whereas she didn’t have medical insurance on the time to pay for her hospital payments, her supervisor organized a profit live performance to lift the funds she wanted. Engel collaborated with New York radio stations Kiss FM and WFAN-FM for the present, which happened in Englewood, New Jersey.
Bofill, who was inducted into the Ladies’s Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2023, took 5 years off from performing The Angela Bofill Expertise after her second stroke, which resulted in her having speech and mobility impairment. Whereas she couldn’t sing within the present, followers would come to listen to her discuss her life, and different artists carried out a few of her hit songs.
In 2011, she spoke with The Washington Publish about her return to the stage. “I feel happy performing again,” she informed the publication on the time. “I need crowd. In the blood, entertain. Any time a crowd comes to see me, I’m surprised. No sing no more and still people come. Wow. Impressed.”
Bofill’s funeral will probably be held at St. Dominic’s Church in Vallejo on June 28 at 1 p.m., in accordance with Engel’s Fb put up.
She is survived by her husband, Chris, and daughter Shauna.
