Singer Melanie (Beautiful People) died at the age of 76

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Pat Swayne (Creative Commons)Melanie Safka in 2005

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 03:47

American singer Melanie has died at the age of 76. Her three children made this known. The singer-songwriter had her biggest hits around 1970, such as Beautiful People in Brand New Key.

Melanie Safka was born in New York in 1947 and performed on a radio broadcast as a toddler. In 1969, at the age of 22, she gave a solo performance at the American festival Woodstock. One of the songs she sang was Beautiful People, which only became a hit in the Netherlands. The song is consistently in the NPO Radio 2 Top 2000. In the late 1990s, the hit was covered by Mathilde Santing, who also had success with it.

During her performance at Woodstock, the audience lit candles and that inspired Melanie to write another big hit: the song Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), a co-production with the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Success followed a short time later Brand New Keyabout a girl on roller skates who tries to attract the attention of a boy.

Melanie was with producer and manager Peter Schekeryk for 45 years. He died in 2010. A few years later a musical about their life together was released. Nothing has been released about Melanie’s cause of death.