--- title: Celebrities Mourn the Loss of Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson description: Celebrities like John Legend and Chaka Khan are sharing their reflections on Nancy Wilson, the legendary jazz singer who died this week. canonical: https://time.com/5480060/nancy-wilson-reactions/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-14T18:27:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:27.617Z og:title: Celebrities Mourn the Loss of Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson og:description: Wilson, who had a five-decade singing career, was 81 og:url: https://time.com/5480060/nancy-wilson-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Celebrities Mourn the Loss of Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson twitter:description: Wilson, who had a five-decade singing career, was 81 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Celebrities Mourn the Loss of Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 14, 2018 6:27 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 14, 2018 6:27 PM UTC On Thursday, jazz singer Nancy Wilson passed away at the age of 81\. [A memorable figure](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/14/obituaries/nancy-wilson-dead-jazz-singer.html) in music known for her flexible style, spanning jazz, blues, R&B, soul and pop, Wilson recorded music for more than 50 years and released more than 70 albums, which featured hits like 1960s songs “(You Don’t Know) How Glad I Am” and her collaboration with famed saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, “Save Your Love For Me.” In 1964, TIME even [called her an](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,875977,00.html) “heir apparent” to Ella Fitzgerald, describing her work as “a treatise on variety and taste, spun by a voice of agile grace and knowing jazz inflection and phrasing.” She was known as the “song stylist.” Over the course of her career, Wilson was a platinum-selling artist and three-time Grammy winner — and also [a TV entertainer,](https://web.archive.org/web/20140120125235/http://www.npr.org/people/2101390/nancy-wilson) with repeat appearances on _The Cosby Show_ and _Sinbad_, guest spots on _The Tonight Show_ and even her own Emmy-winning variety TV show, _The Nancy Wilson Show,_ in the 1970s. Since her passing, celebrities across the worlds of music, politics and beyond — from [John Legend](http://time.com/5435869/john-legends-baby-boy-is-basically-his-tiny-doppelganger/) to Chaka Khan to [RuPaul](http://time.com/5188791/rupauls-drag-race-history/) and former Attorney General [Eric Holder](http://time.com/5068199/eric-holder-robert-mueller/) — have shared their sadness at her passing, noting her “magical” performance ability, “polished vocals” and activism as a civil rights proponent over the years. > [](https://twitter.com/johnlegend/status/1073480603453022208) > [](https://twitter.com/ChakaKhan/status/1073617821400207360) > [](https://twitter.com/EricHolder/status/1073597471392096261) > [](https://twitter.com/RuPaul/status/1073578904730779653) > [](https://twitter.com/donnabrazile/status/1073454040036474880) > [](https://twitter.com/RevJJackson/status/1073610096930902017) > [](https://twitter.com/PointerOfficial/status/1073580140649725959) > [](https://twitter.com/levarburton/status/1073497717668667398) > [](https://twitter.com/6Gems/status/1073440829568638977) > [](https://twitter.com/ledisi/status/1073498559083773952) > [](https://twitter.com/AprilDRyan/status/1073442880155516929) > [](https://twitter.com/DMendelsohn1960/status/1073539809963110401) > [](https://twitter.com/michele%5Fnorris/status/1073469746459234304) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5480060/nancy-wilson-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5480060/nancy-wilson-reactions/"},"headline":"Celebrities Mourn the Loss of Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson","datePublished":"2018-12-14T18:27:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:56:27.617Z","description":"She was 81","url":"https://time.com/5480060/nancy-wilson-reactions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","Music"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5480060/nancy-wilson-reactions/","name":"Celebrities Mourn the Loss of Jazz Singer Nancy Wilson"}}]}] ```