Woodstock Singer Dead Following an Illness: Melanie Was 76

Melanie, the Emmy-winning singer-songwriter who was one of three solo female performers at the original 1969 Woodstock Music and Art Fair, has died. The musician, whose full name was Melanie Safka, passed away Tuesday, Jan. 23 at the age of 76, her children, Lelilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred, announced. Melanie's death was also confirmed by her record label, Cleopatra, and her publicity firm, Glass Onyon PR. A cause of death was not disclosed, though Cleopatra mentioned an "illness" in their statement, PEOPLE reported.

"This is the hardest post for us to write, and there are so many things we want to say, first, and there's no easy way except to say it... Mom passed, peacefully, out of this world and into the next on January 23rd, 2024," her children wrote in a statement shared to Facebook. "We are heartbroken, but want to thank each and every one of you for the affection you have for our Mother, and to tell you that she loved all of you so much!"

Melanie's children went on to remember their mother as "one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of the era and every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected that." They added, "Our world is much dimmer, the colors of a dreary, rainy Tennessee pale with her absence today, but we know that she is still here, smiling down on all of us, on all of you, from the stars."

Born in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York in 1947 to a professional jazz singer mother, according to Pitchfork. Melanie's musical talents showed at a young age. She first performed at the age of 4 when she sang on a New York radio show. She went to study at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and in 1967, she met her future manager, producer and husband, Peter Schekeryk. After singing with her first record label, Columbia Records, she released two singles, "Beautiful People" and "Garden in the City." She left Columbia Records in 1968 and joined Buddah Records, where she released her debut, Born to Be.

Just a year after the release of her debut LP, when she was just 22, Melanie performed at Woodstock. She was one of only three female solo performers, along with Joan Baez and Janis Joplin, to perform. Reflecting on the performance in 2019, she told the Associated Press, "The terror kept building in me. The thought of me performing in front of all of those people and that huge stage – I was all by myself. Then it started to rain and I truly believed that everyone was going to get up and go home. It's raining, I'm free, I'll go back to life as it was. Maybe I will be an archaeologist; maybe I will join the Peace Corps. That's when they said, 'You're next.'"

A few years later, Billboard named her the year's biggest-selling female artist in the U.S. in 1971 following the release of several hits, including "Lay Down" and a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Ruby Tuesday." That same year, she and Schekeryk founded Neighborhood Records, which is considered to be the first female-owned independent label in rock history. In the decades that followed, Melanie continued to release music, and at the time of her death, she was working on her 32nd album, tentatively titled Second Hand Smoke, according to PEOPLE.

The singer is survived by her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred. In their statement on Facebook, her children said they are planning a celebration of life ceremony that "will be open to all of you who want to come and celebrate her. The details will be announced as soon as they are in place."