Entertainment
American country music icon Loretta Lynn, who died Tuesday at the age of 90
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Steph Deschamps / October 5, 2022
She stood behind many Republican candidates, including Donald Trump in 2016. But she was a unanimous voice in the music industry, which she deeply influenced.
When I’m six feet under, they can say, ‘Loretta stopped singing. To Billboard magazine, she had confided that she would never retire from music. The icon of the American country song Loretta Lynn died this Tuesday at the age of 90 years. She was made famous by her texts relaying the problems encountered by women and long passed under silence by society.
Born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932 in a poor family of Kentucky, she was the eldest of eight siblings. She immortalized her childhood in her song “Coal Miner’s Daughter”. “Well, I was born a miner’s daughter/In a shack, up in Butcher Holler Heights,” she recounts in her 1970s hit.
At only 15 years old, the singer married Oliver Vanetta, whose life she shared for 50 years, until his death in 1996. They settled in a small logging town in Washington State, where Loretta Lynn gave birth to four children before she even blew out 20 candles. Shortly after, the couple also welcomed twins.
Captivated by his wife’s voice, Oliver Vanetta gave her a guitar in the early 1950s. A gift of fate. The self-taught singer is inspired for her texts by her own experiences as a young bride and the tumult of her love relationship.
She formed her own band, called Loretta and the Trailblazers, and began performing in bars before recording her first hit, “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” in 1960. “Most songwriters were writing about falling in love, breaking up and being alone,” she explained to The Wall Street Journal in 2016. “The female perspective I was describing was new.
The singer then went on tour to promote her songs on the radio, and performed for the first time on the mythical stage of the Grand Ole Opry in 1960, a Nashville institution of which she would become one of the most acclaimed artists.
Loretta Lynn is a hitmaker. With “Dear Uncle Sam” in 1966, she signs one of the first titles evoking the tragedy of the war in Vietnam. Also in 1966, she released “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, which catapulted to the top of the charts and made her the first country singer to have written a number one hit.
In 1969, she released one of her most controversial songs, “Wings Upon Your Horns,” which used a religious metaphor to describe a teenager losing her virginity. In “The Pill” in 1975, she praised the freedoms allowed by the birth control pill.
In 1988, Loretta Lynn entered the Country Music Hall of Fame. Over the course of her life, she will have been awarded nearly every artistic honor, including the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award, presented by Barack Obama in 2013.
Despite the progressive themes of her lyrics, the singer insisted that her music had “no political purpose.” She has sided with many Republican candidates, including Donald Trump in 2016, although she has also supported Democrats like Jimmy Carter.
But she was unanimous in the music industry, which she deeply influenced, collaborating with many artists, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Elvis Costello. In 2021, at almost 89 years old, she released the album “Still Woman Enough”, which included re-recordings and new songs.
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Steph Deschamps / July 14, 2024
American actress Shannen Doherty, who came to public attention for her role as Brenda in Beverly Hills 90210, died on Saturday at the age of 53, her agent Leslie Sloane told People magazine on Sunday. She had been suffering from cancer for several years.
“On Saturday, July 13, she lost the fight she had waged for many years against the disease,” said Leslie Sloane.
Born in 1971, Shannen Doherty quickly found her way into the spotlight, starting her career with a role in “Little House on the Prairie” in 1982.
From 1990 to 1994, she played Brenda Walsh in the cult classic “Beverly Hills 90210”, a role that brought her international fame. A few years later, from 1998 to 2001, she became Prue Halliwell in the series “Charmed”. Between several TV films and reality TV experiences, she also reunited with Brenda Walsh in the reboot of the series, “90210” in the late 2000s.
Shannen Doherty had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2015. Some time later, the disease had returned, at stage 4. The cancer then generalized. She passed away on Saturday, surrounded by her loved ones.
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Steph Deschamps / June 22, 2024
Donald Sutherland, the eclectic actor best known for “The Dirty Dozen” and his role as a dictator in “The Hunger Games”, has died aged 88, his son Kiefer Sutherland announced on Thursday.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the death of my father,” announced the British-Canadian, also an actor, on X, hailing “one of the most important actors in the history of cinema ».
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Steph Deschamps / June 22, 2024
Donald Sutherland, the eclectic actor best known for “The Dirty Dozen” and his role as a dictator in “The Hunger Games”, has died aged 88, his son Kiefer Sutherland announced on Thursday.
“It is with a heavy heart that I announce the death of my father,” announced the British-Canadian, also an actor, on X, hailing “one of the most important actors in the history of cinema ».
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