Patti LaBelle

About Patti LaBelle

Patti LaBelle has been in the music business for over six decades, which sounds impossible until you remember she started as a teenager in the early 1960s. Born Patricia Louise Holte in Philadelphia in 1944, she formed a girl group called the Bluebelles that eventually became Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. They had some success with "I Sold My Heart to the Junkman" and did the whole matching-dresses circuit through the 1960s.

The real shift happened in 1971 when they rebranded as Labelle, dropped the gowns for silver space suits and feathers, and leaned into funk and rock. "Lady Marmalade" in 1974 was the obvious peak of this era. That song went to number one and became the kind of track that gets covered every decade or so, usually by whoever needs a guaranteed hit. The album it came from, Nightbirds, was the first album by an African American group to top the Billboard 200. Labelle broke up in 1977, which seems to be what successful groups did back then.

Patti went solo and spent the 1980s proving she didn't need the group. "If Only You Knew" in 1983 gave her a number one R&B hit. "New Attitude" showed up on the Beverly Hills Cop soundtrack in 1984, which meant it was inescapable. Then "On My Own," her duet with Michael McDonald in 1986, hit number one on the Hot 100. It's the kind of ballad that sounds dated now but was everywhere at the time.

The thing about LaBelle is the voice. It's huge and athletic, capable of runs that seem structurally unsound. She can oversing, sure, but when she wants to, she can also just pin you to the wall with a held note. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" became vehicles for her to show what that voice could do in live settings. Her version of the national anthem is one of the few that people actually remember.

She's kept working steadily since then, releasing albums every few years, though none have matched the commercial impact of the 1980s output. She's become a different kind of celebrity, showing up on cooking shows and selling sweet potato pies that went viral. She's done Broadway, reality TV, the occasional duet with younger artists who want some of that credibility.

At 80, she's still performing, still wearing elaborate costumes, still capable of outsinging people a third her age. She's been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and exists in that rare space where she's both a legend and someone who never really went away. Most singers from the 1960s are either retired or dead. LaBelle is still here, still loud.

LaBelle commands the stage with absolute authority. She works a crowd like someone who's paid her dues and knows exactly what she's doing. Expect dramatic costume changes, call-and-response moments where she makes the audience feel seen, and a voice that sounds better live than you'd think possible for someone who's been touring for sixty years.

Known for Lady Marmalade, Love, Need and Want You, If Only You Knew, New Attitude, On My Own

See Patti LaBelle Live