Singer and Obie-Winning Actress Salome Bey Dies at 86

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report that singer and actress Salome Bey has died at age 86.

Bey was known as "Canada's First Lady of Blues," performing in jazz clubs by herself and with her brother and sister, in their group Andy and the Bey Sisters.

Bey appeared on Broadway in Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for her work on the cast album. She made her Broadway debut in Dude in 1972, and won an Obie Award the same year for Love Me, Love My Children.

She also put together a blues & jazz cabaret show on the history of black music, Indigo - which earned her the Dora Mavor Moore Award for outstanding performance.

Bey recorded two albums with Horace Silver, and released live albums of her performances with the Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir and at the Montreux Jazz Festival. She received the Toronto Arts Award for her contributions to the performing arts in 1992, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for lifetime achievement from the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal in 1996.