Sass Jordan, the singer-songwriter who enjoyed significant success in Canadian rock in the 1990s before becoming a judge on Canadian Idol, has died at 65. The cause of death has not been made public.
According to a social media statement, she died on October 2 "in the arms of her loving family… She remains in our hearts, an inimitable force of nature. An irreplaceable entity of light and joy!"
Born in Birmingham, England in 1960, Jordan moved to Montreal as a child after her father, a French scholar, took a position at the city's Concordia University. She began performing as a teenager, and by her twenties had recorded with various Montreal artists: she wrote a song for singer Michael Breen that reached the Canadian Top 40.
By 1988 she had signed with Atlantic Records, which released her debut album Tell Somebody, whose two singles – the title track and Double Trouble – both charted just outside the Canadian Top 10. The following year she won a Juno Award (Canada's equivalent of the Grammy) for most promising female artist.
Her 1992 album Racine produced four Canadian Top 20 hits. Along with a move to Los Angeles, a new record deal with RCA and a contribution to the best-selling soundtrack for The Bodyguard, she made inroads into the larger US market. Sun's Gonna Rise, from her 1994 album Rats, became her only entry on the US Hot 100, as well as her biggest Canadian hit when it reached No. 7. Taylor Hawkins, later the drummer for Foo Fighters, played drums in her live band during this period.
The RCA deal ended, and Jordan later expressed frustration with the polished sound of her next two albums. Her career was nonetheless boosted by her role as a judge on six seasons of the talent show Canadian Idol, and she returned to recording with the 2006 album You Get What You Give. In 2001 she also performed as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway musical Love, Janis.
She later shifted toward a bluesier sound, with her 2020 album Rebel Moon Blues reaching the top 5 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."
