Sharon Jones has died.
The soul singer and bandleader of the Dap-Kings – who was diagnosed with Stage 2 pancreatic cancer in 2013 – passed away at a hospital in Cooperstown in upstate New York on Friday (18.11.16) at the age of 60.
Her representative Judy Miller Silverman said in a statement: "We are deeply saddened to announce that Sharon Jones has passed away after a heroic battle against pancreatic cancer. She was surrounded by her loved ones, including the Dap-Kings."
Chaka Khan took to Twitter after news of Sharon’s death broke, to say: "My deepest condolences. She was the real deal in this industry."
Despite Sharon’s diagnosis in 2013, she returned to touring with the Dap-Kings in 2014, after undergoing her first round of treatment.
Speaking earlier this year after the cancer returned as Stage 4, she said: "This cancer is here, and I have to take the chemo. But I want to perform. I just want to be able to get onstage and move."
She also explained: "When I walk out [onstage], whatever pain is gone. You forget about everything. There is no cancer. There is no sickness. You’re just floating, looking in their faces and hearing them scream. That’s all that is to me."
Sharon – who was a backup singer and session musician before founding the Dap-Kings in the early 2000s – has been called a "female James Brown" and received her first Grammy Award nomination in 2014 for the album ‘Give the People What They Want’.
The Dap-Kings’ final album with Sharon, ‘It’s a Holiday Soul Party’, was released in 2015.
Sharon Jones dead at 60
