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Thursday, January 08, 2009

Favorite Singer Who Is No Longer Living

Blog Prompt: Happy Birthday Elvis! Who is your favorite singer that is no longer living?

My favorite singer that is no long living is Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole. He had an awesome voice. The first time I heard about him was when my mom and I were vacationing on the Big Island in Hawaii. One of the employees at the hotel suggested we go see an awesome singer that was playing at the hotel. We had no idea who he was but we bought tickets to see him. He was awesome. He sang in a small banquet room so we were got to see him up close. It was magical to see him sing. It was cool that we saw him before he became really famous. I am so glad I got to see him sing live.

His medley of "Over the Rainbow" and "What a Wonderful World" has been in TV commercials and movies.

Unfortunately he died of weight-related respiratory illness on June 26, 1997 at the age of 38. Hawaii flew their flag at half-mast the day of his funeral in 1997 and his coffin lay in state at the Capitol building in Honolulu. There was over 10,000 people at his funeral.

When hubby and I got married our first dance song was "In Dis Life" by Iz. He had such a pure voice. Too bad he died so young.

4 comments:

  1. I'd never heard of him until recently and saw a youtube video of him singing. His songs gave me chills because it was so good. It actually had me in tears. I wish I knew him when he was alive.

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  2. I have those 2 songs on my computer. I love them.

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  3. I have never heard of him, but I am on my way to check out his music now!

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