James Etta Hawkins popularly known as Etta James was born in January 25, 1938 in Los Angeles. She also has a nickname as Miss Peaches. She was an American singer. She used to sing variety of genres like blues, R&B, soul, rock and roll, jazz and gospel. Her height is 167m and her ethnicity is African-American. She moved to Dorothy Hawkins when she was 14 years old. Her mother used to conduct relationship with various men due to which her mother was mostly absent in the apartment. Due to her mother’s relation with various men James lived with various series of foster parents. James referred her mother as “the Mystery Lady”.
At the age of 5, James received her first professional vocal training from James Earle Hines, the musical director of the Echoes of Eden choir. It is located in the south central Los Angeles at St.Paul Baptist Church. She became popular. The Sarge there used to pressurize the Church for singing for him but they refused. The Sarge would wake James up early in the morning and force her to sing for him and his friends. She used to often soak in her own urine, as she was a bet-wetter and also because of her fear towards the Sargent. After the death of Mama Lu, James biological mother and James moved to Fillmore district and within a couple of years, James started listening to doo-wop. She was then inspired to form a girl band called Creolettes. James met Johnny Otis.
The Creolettes band was then named as Peaches and game her stage name reversing her original name Jamesatta to “James Etta”. Then later in 1955 the song “Dance with Me, Henry” was released. At the month of February the song reached number one in the Hot Rhythm & Blues Tracks chart. The success if the song gave the gave chance to Little Richard’s national tour. During the tour, a pop singer named Georgia Gibbs recorded James song on her version as gave the title “The Wallflower”. This became a cross over hit and reached number one in the list of Billboard Hot 100. This angered James. She left the band and had another R&B hit with ‘Good Rocking Daddy’. She then decided to sign with Leonard Chess namesake level, Chess Record in 1960. After a short period she got into a relationship (boyfriend) with a singer Harvey Fugua also the founder of the doo-wop group The Moonglows.
She gained fame with songs like ‘The Wallflower’, ‘At Last’, ‘Tell Mama’, ‘Something For a Hold on Me’. She also wrote lyrics for a song named “I’d Rather Go Blind”. She was the winner of six Grammy and 17 Blues Music Awards. In 1993 she was involved in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in 2011 Blues Hall of Fame, and in 1999 and 2008 she was inducted as the Grammy Hall of Fame. Rolling Stones’ ranked James as 22 in the list of the ‘100 Greatest Singers of All Time’ and 62 on the list of the’100 Greatest Artists.
James came across a series of legal problems. Continously she was in and out of the rehabilitation centers. She was married to artist Milss in 1969. They were both arrested for the possession of heroin but her husband accepted the responsibility and was sentenced 10 year of prison. He was released in 1981. James was sentenced to drug treatment in 1974 instead of prison. She was sent to Tarazana Psychiatric Hospital for 17 months. There, she went through great struggle. After leaving hospital she still continued her abuse as she was with a man who was also an abuse but they didn’t have any divorce.
James had two sons as children, Donto and Sametto. They both started playing and performing with their mother. Donto is a drummer at Montreux and Sametto is a bass guitarist circa 2003.
James has more than 1m likes on Facebook, 2658 followers in twitter, 1750 followers and 1598 post in Instagram. She is famous in YouTube and has many views.
Etta James as a famous American singer has a net worth of $16 million. She has also earned her name with her quotes. James is said to have a gap between various genres.
James biography and her wiki are filled with her musical career and tours, her songs, tracks and successful life.
In 2010, she was hospitalized for the treatment of an infection caused by MRSA (a bacteria resistant to most antibiotic treatments). During her treatment her son Donto revealed that in 2008, she had been diagnosed with a disease called Alzheimer’s. In the early 2011 she was diagnosed with leukemia, which became serious and in 2012, January 20 Etta James died. She died just 4 days before her 74th birthday, at Riverside Community Hospital, Riverside, California. Just 3 days before she was dead, the man who discovered her, Johnny Otis also died. Her funeral was done in Gardena, California 8 days after her death presided by Reverend Al Sharpton. She was entombed at Inglewood Park Cemetry in Los Angeles Country, California.