1. Natalie Maria Cole was an American singer, songwriter, and actress.
47 Facts About Natalie Cole
1. 2.
Natalie Cole was the daughter of singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole.
3.
Natalie Cole rose to prominence in the mid-1970s, with the release of her debut album Inseparable, along with the song "This Will Be ", and the album's title track.
4.
Natalie Cole was born at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Los Angeles, California, to American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington and raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles.
5.
Natalie Cole sang on her father's 1960 Christmas album The Magic of Christmas and later started performing at age 11.
6.
Natalie Cole's paternal uncle Freddy Cole was a singer and pianist with numerous albums and awards.
7.
Natalie Cole enrolled in Northfield School for Girls, an elite New England preparatory school, before her father died of lung cancer in February 1965.
8.
Natalie Cole attended The Buckley School, a private school in Sherman Oaks, California, and then enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
9.
Natalie Cole transferred briefly to University of Southern California, where she pledged the Upsilon chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.
10.
Natalie Cole later transferred back to the University of Massachusetts, where she majored in Child Psychology and minored in German, graduating in 1972.
11.
Natalie Cole grew up listening to a variety of music that included Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin.
12.
Natalie Cole won Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards for her accomplishments, making her the first African-American artist to attain that feat.
13.
Later in 1977, Natalie Cole issued her fourth release and second platinum album, Thankful, which included another signature Natalie Cole hit, "Our Love".
14.
Natalie Cole was the first female artist to have two platinum albums in one year.
15.
In 1983, following the release of her album I'm Ready, released on Epic, Natalie Cole entered a rehab facility in Connecticut and stayed there for six months.
16.
Natalie Cole produced vocal arrangements for the songs, with piano accompaniment by her uncle Ike Natalie Cole.
17.
Natalie Cole's label released an interactive duet between Natalie Cole and her father on the title song, "Unforgettable".
18.
Natalie Cole followed that success with another album of jazz standards, titled Take a Look, in 1993, which included her recording of the title track in the same styling that her idol Aretha Franklin had recorded nearly 30 years earlier.
19.
In 1995, Natalie Cole was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Berklee College of Music.
20.
In 1999, Natalie Cole returned to her 1980s-era urban contemporary recording style with the release of Snowfall on the Sahara on June and second Christmas album The Magic of Christmas on October, which recorded with London Symphony Orchestra.
21.
Natalie Cole changed to Verve Records and released two albums.
22.
Natalie Cole appeared several times in concerts or other music related programs, including the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute with sidemen Richard Campbell, Jeffrey Worrell, Eddie Cole, and Dave Joyce.
23.
In 1990, Natalie Cole hosted the TV show Big Break, a talent competition where singers and musicians competed for a $100,000 prize.
24.
Natalie Cole received a nomination for Outstanding Individual Performance but lost to Bette Midler.
25.
Natalie Cole had the lead role in the TV movie Lily in Winter.
26.
Natalie Cole sang the national anthem with the Atlanta University Center Chorus at Super Bowl XXVIII.
27.
On February 13,2012, Natalie Cole was a guest judge on RuPaul's Drag Race Season 4 Episode 3.
28.
Natalie Cole herself was so impressed she can be seen cheering and chiming in during the performance.
29.
Natalie Cole had a son, Robert Adam "Robbie" Yancy.
30.
Under his influence, Natalie Cole changed from a lapsed Episcopalian to become a devout Baptist.
31.
In 1989, Natalie Cole married record producer and former drummer for the band Rufus, Andre Fischer.
32.
Natalie Cole was active in the Afghan World Foundation cause, supporting Sonia Nassery Natalie Cole.
33.
In 2000, Natalie Cole released an autobiography, Angel on My Shoulder, which described her battle with drugs during much of her life, including heroin and crack cocaine.
34.
At one stage of her addiction, Natalie Cole worked as a prostitute's tout in order to fund her drug habit.
35.
Natalie Cole said she began recreational drug use while attending the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
36.
Natalie Cole was arrested in Toronto, Canada, for possession of heroin in 1975.
37.
Natalie Cole spiraled out of control in this phase of her life.
38.
Natalie Cole's autobiography was released in conjunction with a made-for-TV movie, Livin' for Love: The Natalie Cole Story, which aired December 10,2000, on NBC and re-aired October 26,2011, on Centric TV.
39.
Natalie Cole announced in 2008 that she had been diagnosed with hepatitis C, a liver disease spread through contact with infected blood.
40.
Natalie Cole attributed having the disease to her past intravenous drug use.
41.
Four months after starting treatment for hepatitis C, Natalie Cole experienced kidney failure and required dialysis three times a week for nine months.
42.
Natalie Cole canceled several events in December 2015 due to her illness.
43.
Natalie Cole's last musical performance was a short set of three songs in Manila.
44.
Natalie Cole died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on December 31,2015, at the age of 65.
45.
Natalie Cole's publicist said the singer's death was the result of congestive heart failure, which her family said was a complication of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, which she had been diagnosed with after her kidney transplant in 2009.
46.
Natalie Cole's funeral was held on January 11,2016, at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles.
47.
Natalie Cole's grave is located in the central lawn area of the 'Court of Freedom' section, Garden of Honor; there is no public access to her grave.