Natalie Cole Bio
Natalie Maria Cole was an American singer, voice actress, songwriter, and actress. Natalie Cole was the daughter of American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole. She rose to fame in the mid-1970s as an R&B singer with the hits This Will Be, Inseparable in 1975, and Our Love in 1977.
Cole returned as a pop singer on the 1987 album Everlasting and her cover of Bruce Springsteen’s Pink Cadillac. In the 1990s, Natalie sang traditional pop by her father, resulting in her biggest success, Unforgettable with Love, which sold over seven million copies and won her seven Grammy Awards. She sold over 30 million records worldwide.
Natalie Cole Age
Natalie Cole was born on 6th February 1950 to American singer and jazz pianist Nat King Cole and former Duke Ellington Orchestra singer Maria Hawkins Ellington. Cole was raised in the affluent Hancock Park district of Los Angeles.
Talking about her childhood, Cole referred to her family as the black Kennedys and was exposed to many great singers of jazz, soul, and blues. At the age of 6, Natalie sang on her father’s Christmas album: The Magic of Christmas and later started performing at age 11.
Natalie grew up with an older adopted sister, Carole Cookie Cole from 1944 to 2009 (her mother Maria’s younger sister’s daughter), adopted brother Nat “Kelly” Cole (1959–95), and younger twin sisters Timolin and Casey (born 1961). Through her mother, Cole was a grandniece of educator Charlotte Hawkins Brown.
Her paternal uncle Freddy Cole is a singer and pianist with numerous albums and awards. Cole enrolled in Northfield School for Girls, an elite New England preparatory school since 1971 known as Northfield Mount Hermon School before her father died of lung cancer in February 1965.
Soon afterward she started having a difficult relationship with her mother. Cole enrolled in the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She transferred briefly to the University of Southern California where she pledged the Upsilon chapter of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She later transferred back to the University of Massachusetts, where she majored in Child Psychology and minored in German. Natalie Cole graduated in 1972.
At the time of Natalie Cole’s death on 31st December 2015, Cole was 65 years old. Natalie Cole died of Congestive Heart failure.
Natalie Cole Spouse
Natalie Cole was married three times. She married Marvin Yancy, songwriter, producer, and former member of the 1970s R&B group The Independents on July 31, 1976. Together they had a son, Robert Adam Robbie Yancy born on October 14, 1977, and died on August 14, 2017; he was a musician who toured with her. Marvin was Cole’s producer and an ordained Baptist minister who helped reintroduce her to religion.
Under his influence, she changed from a lapsed Episcopalian to become a devout Baptist. In 1980 Cole and Yancy got divorced; Yancy later died of a heart attack in 1985 at the age of 34. In 1989, Cole married record producer and former drummer for the band Rufus, Andre Fischer; they were divorced in 1995. Cole then married Bishop Kenneth Dupree k in 2001; they divorced in 2004. In 2017, son Robbie died of a heart attack, aged 39.
Natalie Cole Son
Natalie Cole’s son Robert Yancy was found dead in his San Fernando Valley, Calif., apartment. Robert Yancy was 39 years old and Cole’s only child. His death was attributed to natural causes. Yancy was the grandson of the legendary Nat King Cole.
Cole’s twin sisters, Casey and Timolin, told Page Six: “We are saddened, completely heartbroken beyond words at the death of our nephew. It’s an inexplicable loss to our family, especially after losing Natalie.”
Her sisters continue to preserve their family’s legacy through their Nat King Cole Generation Hope foundation. “We want the world to know we’re going to do everything we can to keep our father, our sister and now Robbie’s legacy and name alive. He’s up in heaven with royalty,” Timolin said.
Natalie Cole Songs
Natalie Cole
» This Will Be
» Miss, You Like Crazy
» Starting Over Again
» I’ve Got Love On My Mind
» Starting Over Again
» Someone That I Used To Love
» Inseparable
» When I Fall In Love
» Our Love
» Pink Cadillac
» Sophisticated Lady
» I Live For Your Love
» I’m Catching Hell
» L-O-V-E
» Mr.Melody
» I Wish You Love
» I Can’t Say No
» Annie Mae
» Wild Women Do
» Our Love Is Here to Stay
» Living For Love
» A Smile Like Yours
» Lucy In The Sky With Diamond
» Day Dreaming
» Unforgettable
» The Very Thought of You
» Angel On My Shoulder
» Mona Lisa
» Route 66
» Orange Colored Sky
» A Medley of For Sentimental Reasons, Tenderly, Autumn Leaves
» Jump Start
» Tell Me About It
Natalie Cole This Will Be
This Will Be is a song written by Chuck Jackson and Marvin Yancy. It was performed by American singer Natalie Cole. This was Natalie Cole’s debut single released in April 1975 and one of her biggest hits, becoming a number-one R&B and number-six pop smash in the United States and also reaching the UK Top 40.
Natalie Cole won a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, a category that had previously been dominated by Aretha Franklin. It would also help her win the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.
Cole had been turned down by every label she approached, but eventually gained the interest of Larkin Arnold, who at the time was the executive of Capitol Records, through demos produced by Jackson and Yancy. The two wrote the song at the end of sessions for Arnold, just as he and Cole were about to leave town.
Natalie Cole Cause of Death
Natalie Cole announced in 2008 that she had been diagnosed with hepatitis C, which is a liver disease that is spread through contact with infected blood. Cole attributed having the disease to her past intravenous drug use. Cole explained in 2009 that hepatitis C “stayed in my body for 25 years, and it could still happen to addicts who are fooling around with drugs, especially needles.”
Four months after starting treatment for hepatitis C, Cole experienced kidney failure and required dialysis three times a week for nine months. Following her appeal for a kidney on the Larry King Show, she was contacted by the organ procurement agency One Legacy, in May 2009. The facilitated donation came from a family requesting that, if there were a match, their donor’s kidney be designated for Cole.
Cole canceled several events in December 2015 due to illness. It was reported on January 1, 2016, that she had died the day prior at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Cole’s family stated that at the time of her death, Cole had “ongoing health issues”.According to Cole’s publicist, Maureen O’Connor, the singer’s death was the result of congestive heart failure. Prior to this final stage in the singer’s life, Cole’s last musical performance was a short set of three songs in Manila.
In official news on her cause of death, her family stated that Cole was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension after her kidney transplant in 2009. Although Cole was clean and sober at the time of her death, her past intravenous drug use contributed to her demise.
Cole’s son, along with her sisters, offered the following comment. “Natalie fought a fierce, courageous battle, dying how she lived… with dignity, strength, and honor. Our beloved mother and sister will be greatly missed and remain unforgettable in our hearts forever.”
Cole’s funeral was held on January 11, 2016, at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ in Los Angeles. David Foster, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Chaka Khan, Eddie Levert, Mary Wilson, Gladys Knight, Ledisi, Jesse Jackson, Angela Bassett, Denise Nicholas, Marla Gibbs, Jackée Harry, and Freda Payne were among the mourners at the funeral. After the funeral, she was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
Note: This biography is based on the available information as of 2023, and real-time updates or developments are being updated by our editorial team.