According to her website, she leaves behind two children. Her agent told the CBC that she had been hospitalized with an infection, but he didn't share further details. "I am deeply saddened by the loss of a dear sweet woman and a gifted singer-songwriter who represented women and her beloved Nova Scotia so eloquently in her songs," fellow Nova Scotian Anne Murray wrote on Facebook.Ī member of the Order of Canada, MacNeil died from post-surgical complications. Rita MacNeil originally did Youll Never Walk Alone. So happy to have had the pleasure of working with you." Rita MacNeil covered Smilin Through, Silent Night, Blue Christmas, Away in a Manger and other songs. "We just lost a Canadian legend," Terri Clark said on Twitter. MacNeil, whose home is in Big Pond, Cape Breton, will receive an Honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.). Other tributes came pouring in from social media. Cape Bretons Rita MacNeil revisits the styles and sounds that first brought her acclaim, but at times there is a certain sadness and melancholy in her voice as she looks back on her memories, especially on the piano and violin touches of 'Floating.' The album, written on her own, is quite reflective and pensive throughout. “Rita was not externally the epitome of beauty but inside she was quite beautiful," novelist Alistair MacLeod told the same source. MacNeil wasn't “someone well-suited to the music business at all," he told the Globe and Mail. Written by Canadian playwright Charlie Rhindress, it was subsequently produced by Neptune Theatre in Halifax, NS in 2002 and published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2008.On Wednesday (April 17), Canadian music journalist Larry LeBlanc remembered a woman who battled stage fright to the end but became a "force of nature" when she stepped into the spotlight. MacNeil wrote her memoirs On A Personal Note with Anne Simpson in 1998, which was published by Key Porter Books.įlying On Her Own, a play based on MacNeil's life and featuring many of her songs, premiered at Live Bait Theatre in Sackville, NB in 2000. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1992 and was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia in 2005. She also runs a tea room in her hometown of Big Pond, which has become one of Cape Breton Island's most popular tourist attractions. MacNeil hosted a CBC Television variety show, Rita and Friends, from 1994 to 1997. She performed at folk festivals throughout the 1970s and 1980s, culminating in her major label debut and pop breakthrough in 1987. She is also the only female singer ever to have three separate albums chart in the same year in Australia.Ī native of Big Pond, Cape Breton County, MacNeil first performed on stage in 1971, and recorded her first album, Born a Woman, in 1975. In 1990, she was the bestselling country artist in Canada, outselling even Garth Brooks and Clint Black. In the United Kingdom, MacNeil's song "Working Man" was a #11 hit in 1990. Her biggest hit, "Flying On Your Own", was a crossover Top 40 hit in 1987 and was covered by Anne Murray the following year, although she has had hits on the country charts throughout her career. Rita MacNeil, (born April 16, 2013) is a Canadian country and folk singer from the community of Big Pond on Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island.
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