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Betty Wright, Grammy-Winning Soul Music Icon, Has Died At 66

Another legend gone too soon.

Betty Wright has passed away at the age of 66. The 70s music icon invested her vocals into R&B and soul. Wrightโ€™s niece shared the shocking news via Twitter on Motherโ€™s Day (May 10).

Playing a major role in the music industry, Wrightโ€™s most popular songs included โ€œNo Pain, (No Gain)โ€ and โ€œTonight Is the Night.โ€ Her 1972 single โ€œClean Up Womanโ€ would be memorialized when it was sampled for Mary J. Bligeโ€™s remix of โ€œReal Love,โ€ going down in hip-hop/soul history.ย 

RELATED: The Best Part of DJ Khaledโ€™s โ€˜Holy Keyโ€™ Performance Was Betty Wrightโ€™s High Note

Wrightโ€™s classic hit โ€œWhere Is the Love,โ€ was crowned Best R&B Song during the 1976 Grammys, she was later named the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer for Individual Artists in 2000.ย 

Her riff from โ€œClean Up Womanโ€ has created a life-long legacy as the cut has been sampled by other artists includingย SWV,ย Sublime, Willie D, Afrika Bambaattaa, and Chance the Rapper. Her first hit, โ€œGirls Canโ€™t Do What Guys Do,โ€ was later sampled for Beyonceโ€™s โ€œUpgrade U.โ€ย 

RELATED: The Full Review: Betty Wright

The cause of death of Ms. Betty Wright has yet to be revealed, though just one week ago (on May 2), Chaka Khan took to Instagram asking for prayers for Wright:

Here is what Twitter had to say to mourn the legend:

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