Pioneering transgender singer Jackie Shane dead at 78
Posted Feb 22, 2019 11:30 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
NASHVILLE — Jackie Shane, a black transgender soul singer who became a pioneering musician in Toronto where she packed out nightclubs in the 1960s, has died. She was 78.
Record label Numero Group, which produced a Grammy-nominated album about Shane, confirmed Friday that she died in Nashville, Tennessee. The exact date and cause of death were not provided.
Born in the Jim Crow era, Shane was a session musician in Nashville and a singer who toured in the South before moving to Canada. She found a home in Toronto’s R&B nightclub scene, where white and black crowds adored her. But in 1971, she left show business and eventually returned to Nashville to live in anonymity for decades.
Recently, the album “Any Other Way” brought her back to the spotlight.
Kristin M. Hall, The Associated Press
