Alice Tan Ridley, a singer who shared her highly effective voice on the New York City subway earlier than acting on “America’s Got Talent” and the mom of the candidate for Oscar Gabourey Sidibe, died.
Ridley died on March 25 in New York City, his household introduced in a obituary revealed on the funeral home of discouragers website. A reason behind demise has not been revealed. He was 72 years outdated.
The obituary described Ridley, identified amongst family members as “tanning”, as a “pillar of the New York City singing circuit”. The singing was Ridley’s “God Gone” expertise and shared him all through the town with reveals in quite a few subway stations, primarily in Herald Square, stated the obituary. He was additionally a paid singer within the well-known Harlem Cotton Club.
Ridley, a former trainer, was identified for his time within the fifth season of “America’s Got Talent”. While his daughter Gabourey acquired love of the prizes season for her transferring efficiency in “Precous”, Ridley appeared on “AGT” on the age of 57 in quest of her desires. The viewers and judges Sharon Osbourne, Howie Mandel and Piers Morgan along with his feeling of “All Last” Soul by Etta James has thrilled. The trio of judges unanimously accepted to make Ridley advance, and through the competitors he continued to point out his vocal abilities by performing successes from Creedence Clearwater Revival and Gladys Knight.
For Osbourne, Ridley was a “pure artist” with an “electrical energy plant of a voice”. Ridley’s “America’s Got Talent” journey ended within the semifinal after performing his interpretation of Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”.
While “America’s Got Talent” was the preferred platform for Ridley, it was not his just one. After his elimination “AGT”, Ridley continued to deliver his music to varied phases together with the New York dance corridor and the daytime area with an apparition in Harry Connick Jr. “Harry” discuss present.
“I really like singing however, you understand, I noticed a necessity in subway stations as a result of individuals are typically unhappy for his or her work, for his or her day or anything and have a cipiglio within the face,” he advised the entertainer in 2017. “I like to rework the frowning one right into a smile.”
After “AGT”, Ridley additionally launched his debut album “Never Lost My Way” in 2016. Ridley was additionally a competitor of “Showtime on the Apollo”, within the 2005 documentary “Rize” and the tv expertise present “30 Seconds to Fame”, in line with the obituary.
Ridley, born on December 21, 1952, in Lumpkin, Georgia, was the youthful second of eight kids by mother and father Melton Lee Ridley and Lessie B. Ridley. His sister was the activist Dorothy Pitman Hughes, who died in December 2022.
The singer graduated from the Stewart County High School in 1969 and pursued training, lastly receiving his instructing license. He married Ibnou Sidibe in 1980 and share two kids: Gabourey and his son Ahmed Sidibe. The “Empire” actor he said In 2017 that his mother and father separated originally of his childhood after he was revealed that his father had a second household. Despite this, the ex-Spay remained pleasant, stated the obituary.
In addition to his kids, Ridley survived the James D. “Jimmy” Ridley and Tommy Lee “Tom-Tom” Cherry brothers; Sisters Julia Van Mater-Miller and Mildred Ridley Dent; Cooper and Maya grandchildren and lots of different family members.
The household will host a funeral service on Saturday in Georgia adopted by a burial close to her hometown.
