Alice Tan Ridley, who spent three a long time entertaining subway riders in New York Metropolis as a gospel and R&B singer earlier than wowing viewers on NBC’s America’s Obtained Expertise and releasing her first studio album when she was 63, has died. She was 72.
Ridley died March 25 in New York, her household introduced. Survivors embody her daughter, Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe (Valuable).
The seventh of eight kids, Ridley was born on Dec. 21, 1952, in Charles Junction, Georgia. In a 2016 New York Occasions profile, she recalled being influenced by jazz and gospel and by such artists as Aretha Franklin.
She graduated from Stewart County Excessive College in 1969, moved to New York in 1971, earned her educating license from the New York State Board of Schooling and had two kids.
Ridley taught special-needs youngsters at P.S. 134 within the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn however misplaced her job and obtained divorced, and as a single mom, she started making a dwelling by singing for ideas within the subway, primarily on the Herald Sq. station.
“I used to be a giant secret,” Ridley instructed the Occasions of busking by the subway. “With so many individuals passing by, I puzzled, ‘Why doesn’t anyone introduce me to somebody who might assist me out?’”
She received $25,000 on the 2002 pilot episode of Fox’s 30 Seconds to Fame and in 2005 was a contestant on Showtime on the Apollo. Additionally that yr, she carried out “Superb Grace” within the David LaChapelle documentary Rize and “America the Stunning” within the movie Heights, starring Elizabeth Banks and Glenn Shut. She additionally sang at Harlem’s Cotton Membership for a few years.
When she was 58, Ridley was noticed within the subway by Israeli scholar Dvir Assouline, who began managing her in 2010. “Each time I noticed her performing, there have been at all times a whole lot of individuals round her,” he instructed THR. “She introduced pleasure to so many individuals day-after-day.”
She additionally auditioned for AGT in 2010 with the Etta James basic “At Final,” and her uncooked energy and attraction instantly resonated with the judges. She would advance all the best way to the semifinals.
In September 2016 at age 63, she launched her debut album, By no means Misplaced My Means, a group of her favourite tunes in addition to unique songs she wrote with producer Jay Stolar. She tackled such emotional subjects as watching her kids develop and coping with a dishonest lover.
(In 2010, she had burned a CD of songs for a do-it-yourself album she referred to as Unfold Your Wings.)
After showing on America’s Obtained Expertise, Ridley and a seven-piece band headlined at such venues as B.B. King’s membership in New York and at performing arts facilities throughout the U.S. She additionally carried out in Argentina, Germany, Uruguay, Morocco, Romania and The Netherlands and sang the pop music “Good Feeling,” used for commercials for Buick and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
She did return to her beginnings as nicely, because the Occasions famous, with Ridley performing within the subway once more in 2014. “After I was not down below there, I missed it,” she instructed the newspaper.
Ridley spent her 60s touring and performing however was pressured to retire in 2018 when she reportedly started affected by dementia.
Along with her daughter, Ridley is survived by her son, Ahmed; siblings James and Tommy; sisters Julia and Mildred; and her twin grandchildren, Cooper and Maya. She was predeceased by one other sister, Dorothy Pittman Hughes, a civil rights activist, and one other brother, singer Roger Ridley.
Deborah Wilker contributed to this report.
