Songbird

Today is Eva Cassidy's birthday. By now, I guess, most people are familiar with her story. Eva died in 1996, aged 33, of melanoma. She was a relatively obscure singer who enjoyed little commercial success while she was alive. In 2000, Terry Wogan (another obscure radio presenter!) of the BBC, promoted her recording of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". A video recording of her playing in Blues Alley in 1996 became the most requested video ever on Top of the Pops.

Her marvelous compilation album, Songbird, then became a huge bestseller in the UK and Ireland and she went on to enjoy huge international posthumous success. In 2005, she was the 5th highest bestselling artist on Amazon.com.

Her version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow is truly beautiful and better, in my opinion, than Judy Garland's. The last song she ever sang publicly was What A Wonderful World, which she performed at a benefit gig in front of many of her friends and family.  She died 6 weeks later,

She would have been 48 today.  Happy Birthday Eva.



If you want to see the full story of her all too brief life this is a short ABC documentary made in 2010.