Soul legend Betty Wright loses cancer battle
Soul legend Betty Wright has died, aged 66. The No Pain, (No Gain) and Clean Up Woman singer lost her battle with cancer at home in Miami, Florida, according to Billboard, a week after friend Chaka Khan urged fans to pray for Betty via Twitter.
“Calling all my #PrayWarriors,” Khan tweeted. “My beloved sister, Betty Wright @MsBettyWright, is now in need of all your prays.”
Born Bessie Regina Norris in 1953, Wright kicked off her career with her family’s gospel group Echoes of Joy in the late 1960s. She released her debut album, My First Time Around, as a teenager and scored a U.S. top 40 hit with Girls Can’t Do What the Guys Do.
She first hit the top 10 in 1971 with Clean Up Woman. She also had huge hits with Tonight is the Night and Where is the Love, which scored her a Grammy Award for best R&B song in 1975.
Betty founded her own record label, Ms. B Records, and released the album Mother Wit in the 1980s, and she enjoyed a career revival in 2006 after Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs invited her to be part of his MTV reality show Making the Band.