Sass Jordan, the singer-songwriter who became a significant success in Canada’s rock scene in the 1990s before starring as a judge on Canadian Idol, has died aged 65.
No cause of death has been given. A statement on social media said she died on 2 October “surrounded by her loving family … She remains in our hearts, an inimitable force of nature. An irreplaceable being of light and joy!”
Born in Birmingham, England, in 1960, Jordan moved to Montreal as a child when her French academic father took a position at the city’s Concordia University. She began performing in her teens, and by her 20s was recording with a range of Montreal acts: she wrote a song for singer Michael Breen that became a Canadian Top 40 hit.
By 1988 she was signed to Atlantic Records, who released her debut album Tell Somebody, with two singles – the title track and Double Trouble – charting just outside the Canadian Top 10. The following year she won a Juno (the Canadian equivalent of the Grammys) for most promising female vocalist.
Her 1992 album Racine contained four Canadian Top 20 hits and, coupled with a move to Los Angeles, a new label in RCA, and an appearance on the bestselling soundtrack to The Bodyguard broke Jordan into a wider US market. Sun’s Gonna Rise, from 1994 album Rats, became her only US Hot 100 hit, and her biggest hit in Canada, reaching No 7. Taylor Hawkins, later the drummer for Foo Fighters, was her live drummer during this period.
Her RCA deal ended and Jordan later voiced disappointment in the glossy sound of her next couple of albums, but her career received a boost from being a judge on the six seasons of TV talent show Canadian Idol, and she returned to recording with 2006’s You Get What You Give. In 2001 she also performed as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical Love, Janis.
She later embraced a bluesier sound, with 2020 album Rebel Moon Blues reaching the top five of the US blues chart, followed by her most recent studio recording, 2022’s Bitches Blues.
In September, Jordan cancelled tour dates, citing “a serious medical condition”.
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