Soul Singer Betty Wright Dies At 66, Celebrity Fans Pay Tribute

Soul singer Betty Wright has died of cancer at her home at 66.

Wright is best known for hits including “Tonight Is The Night” from 1974 and “Clean Up Woman” from 1972, which was sampled by Mary J. Blige in her “Real Love” remix.

Wright had been diagnosed with endometrial cancer in the fall, president of S-curve records, Steve Greenberg told the New York Times. On May 2, Chaka Khan asked for prayers for Wright in a tweet.

“My beloved sister, Betty Wright, is now in need of all your prays,” she wrote in the tweet. “In Jesus Name We Pray for Sister Betty.”

Wright, who was born Bessie Regina Norris, began her career singing with her family’s gospel group, The Echoes of Joy. By the time she was 15, she already had her own solo album with a Top 40 hit, “Girls Can’t Do What Guys Do.” At 17 she released her song “Clean Up Woman,” and at 21 she won a Grammy award for Best R&B song, “Where Is the Love?”

Her last big hit came in 1988, after she created her own record label. The song was called “No Pain (No Gain),” and it made her the first woman to have a gold album on her own label. Wright was also one of the first pop singers to use the whistle register, which has been more recently been popularized by Mariah Carey and Ariana Grande. Since creating her own label, she had continued performing and writing music, even collaborating with DJ Khaled and Rick Ross.

Friends, fans and musicians remembered the soul singer on social media: