'We Are Family' Singer Joni Sledge Dies At 60

'We area unit Family' Singer Joni Sledge Dies At sixty Joni Sledge of the cluster Sister Sledge, best identified for the enduring dance hall 1979 anthem we have a tendency to area unit Family, has died at sixty. The group's communicator, Biff Warren, same Sledge was found reception in Arizona and that they have nonetheless to see a reason for death. She had not been unwell, he said. "We miss her and hurt for her presence, her radiance, and therefore the sincerity with that she dear & embraced life," the cluster same in a very statement. Sister Sledge was originally created from Joni and 3 of her sisters — Debbie, Kim, and Kathy — although Kathy compound ways that with the cluster in 1989. They hailed from city and fashioned the cluster within the early 70s, impressed by their opera-singing grannie. Their biggest hit, "We area unit Family", written by Claude Bernard Edwards and Nile River Richard Rodgers of stylish, came eight years once they got along and through a troublesome time for the cluster professionally. "We were saying: 'Well, perhaps we must always head to school and simply become lawyers or one thing aside from music, as a result of it extremely is hard,'" Sledge told The Guardian in AN interview last year. The we have a tendency to area unit Family recording session (their massive hit was conjointly the title of the album on that it had been recorded) "was sort of a one-take party – we have a tendency to were simply diversion and fooling around and hanging get into the studio after we did it," she superimposed. Another song from a similar album, "He's the best Dancer," conjointly climbed the charts and was later sampled in can Smith's hit 1998 single "Gettin' Jiggy wit It." Sledge conjointly "wrote many of the songs on, and created, their album African Eyes (1997), that was appointed for a best-production Grammy," consistent with the Guardian. "Joni's in her glory on stage," her sister Kim same in a very video from the cluster. "She's precisely wherever she was created to be, and performing arts together with her on stage, you see it and you're feeling it. She was born to perform." Sister Sledge was still road, despite the actual fact that their biggest hit came out virtually forty years past. They performed for Pope Francis in 2015, and last compete as a bunch in October, as Rolling Stone rumored. They were regular to play in American state next week and had performances in Europe springing up. "I cannot keep in mind not singing," Sledge same in a very BBC interview in 2015, wherever she spoke concerning the enduring power of dance hall. "The word dance hall, I think, was a cool issue to mention as a result of it had been the primary time everybody gathered along only for the sake of fun. And danceroom music can ne'er get away. it will be here forever." She concluded: "As long as folks like to dance, we'll be diversion."