Alice Tan Ridley, the mom of Treasured and American Horror Story actor Gabourey Sidibe and a singer who carried out for a number of a long time in New York Metropolis subway stations, Harlem’s Cotton Membership and different venues earlier than discovering nationwide fame on America’s Obtained Expertise in her late 50s, has died in New York. She was 72.
Her March 25 loss of life was introduced by her household. A trigger was not acknowledged.
Born Alice Ann Ridley on December 21, 1952, in what then was referred to as Charles Junction (now Lumpkin), Georgia, Ridley was the seventh of eight youngsters, and in 1971 moved to New York to show special-needs youngsters. Referred to as Tan by household and pals, for years she sang with members of the family, together with brother Melton Lee Ridley Jr., however solely turned her focus to a music profession in 1992, when she started busking within the subways, singing full time within the Union Sq., thirty fourth Avenue and Occasions Sq. stations.
Performing favorites reminiscent of “I Will All the time Love You,” “I Will Survive,” “My Coronary heart Will Go On” and others, Ridley’s highly effective vocals grew to become a neighborhood sensation that reached wider audiences through YouTube movies. She was featured in a 2010 New York Publish article, and that very same yr auditioned for NBC’s America’s Obtained Expertise with a raise-the-roof efficiency of the Etta James traditional “At Final.”
Whereas her ATG Season 5 efficiency — she made it to the semifinals — was maybe her most impactful profession second, Ridley had a number of brushes with nationwide fame years earlier than. In 2002, she was the winner on the primary episode of Fox’s short-lived 30 Seconds to Fame, taking residence the prize of $25,000. Three years later was a contestant on Showtime on the Apollo, and her music was featured in David LaChapelle’s documentary Rize in addition to the characteristic movie Heights.
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Six years after her ATG efficiency, Ridley, at age 63, Ridley launched her debut studio album By no means Misplaced My Means. She continued to carry out in venues around the globe till she retired in 2018 as a result of well being points.
Along with daughter Gabourey Sidibe and son Ahmed Sidibe — each from her marriage to Ibnou Sidibe, which led to divorce — survivors embrace brothers James D. “Jimmy” Ridley and Tommy Lee “Tom-Tom” Cherry; sisters Julia Van Mater-Miller and Mildred Ridley Dent; two grandchildren and different prolonged household.
