(EMBARGOED FOR PUBLICATION IN UK TABLOID NEWSPAPERS UNTIL 48 HOURS AFTER CREATE DATE AND TIME. MANDATORY CREDIT PHOTO BY DAVE M. BENETT/GETTY IMAGES REQUIRED) attends the launch of LIPBOOM created with Alexandra Burke by MUA Cosmetics at The Rose Club on April 11, 2012 in London, England.
Credit: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images
Soul II Soul singer Melissa Bell has passed away at 53 after a nine-year battle with kidney failure brought on by diabetes, The Daily Mail reports.
Bell’s daughter, Alexandra Burke, who won the fifth season of British X Factor in 2008, shared the news on Twitter today, writing that her mother “gained her wings” Monday, August 28th.
The 29-year-old singer went on to share how her mother was her biggest supporter as a performer and she will carry on that dream in her memory.
Soul II Soul formed in London in 1988 and just a year later released their U.K. and U.S. chart-topping hits “Keep On Movin’ and “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me).” Bell joined the group in 1993 at the request of founding member Jazzie B after Caron Wheeler, who appears in the videos below, left the group to pursue her solo career. Bell went on to work with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Whitney Houston and founded her own group, Soul Explosion.
Bell, a mother of four, began battling kidney disease in 2008, the same year daughter Burke began to compete on X Factor. According to The Mail, Bell’s daughters offered to donate a kidney to their ailing mother but she refused it:
“In a joint interview four years ago, Burke said: ‘I’ve tried three or four times. But Mum made the choice and shut down the discussion because the doctors said it could mean I wouldn’t be able to conceive.
‘She didn’t want to restrict me from having my own life. But I was willing to adopt because I want to do that anyway.’
Ms Bell said that asking her famous daughter to give away a kidney would be ‘downright wicked and selfish’.
Burke responded by telling her, ‘I don’t think it would be a selfish choice. It’s been offered to you. I’m your daughter. Take it!'”
By 2013, Bell was reportedly doing dialysis eight hours per day with Burke looking after her.
We’re sending our prayers to her family.
