Melanie, the singer-songwriter who shot to fame after Woodstock and sang the chart-topping hit Brand New Key, is dead at 76
- Melanie started out in folk clubs in the early 1960s before playing Woodstock
- She immortalized the festival with her top 10 hit Lay Down in 1970
- Melanie’s hits continued into the mid-’70s
Singer Melanie, who was best known for her immensely popular singles Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) and Brand New Key, has passed away.
The songwriter’s children, Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred, announced that she died on January 23 at the age of 76.
“Dear people,” they began, with a greeting their mother often preferred when writing to fans: “This is the hardest message for us to write, and there are so many things we want to say first, and there is no easy way except to say it… My mother passed peacefully from this world to the next on January 23, 2024.”
They praised their mother as “one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of that time,” noting that “every word she wrote and every note she sang reflected that.”
“Our world is much darker, the colors of a dreary, rainy Tennessee pale in her absence today,” they continued, “but we know she is still there, smiling down on us all, on all of you, from the stars. .’
Singer Melanie, who was best known for her immensely popular singles Lay Down (Candles In The Rain) and Brand New Key, has passed away
The songwriter, whose full name was Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk, was remembered by her children Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred, who announced in a Facebook post that she died on January 23 at the age of 76.