Sinead O’Connor will replace late soul legend Bobby Womack as the closing act at this year’s Womad festival in Wiltshire, UK.
Bobby Womack died aged 70 two weeks ago.
Sinead O’Connor achieved worldwide success in 1990 with her version of Prince’s song Nothing Compares 2 U. She more recently made headlines after she publicly criticized Miley Cyrus on Twitter.
Sinead O’Connor will replace late soul legend Bobby Womack as the closing act at this year’s Womad festival
Youssou N’Dour, Manu Dibango and Richard Thompson also headline.
Up to 40,000 people are expected to attend each of the festival’s four days, from July 24.
A festival spokesman said: “Just when you thought that no more remarkable names could be squeezed on to this year’s cracking line-up… another one comes along, the compulsive and uncompromising performer Sinead O’Connor.”
The full Womad Festival line-up features about 100 artists from 40 countries, on the Charlton Park Estate near Malmesbury.
Renowned musician Bobby Womack has died at the age of 70.
The cause of death of the legendary soul singer and songwriter was not announced.
Bobby Womack had suffered from cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and battled with drug addiction.
His hits included It’s All Over Now, performed by the Rolling Stones, and Lookin’ for Love.
Bobby Womack had suffered from cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and battled with drug addiction
He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
Bobby Womack was born in 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio and began singing in a gospel group in the 1950s with his brothers.
He later gained attention after the siblings signed to SAR Records in 1960.
The brothers, including Cecil, Curtis, Harry and Friendly Jr., cut two R&B albums as the Valentinos.
Later the group broke up and Bobby Womack turned to song writing and a solo career.
He outlived many of the acts with whom he played and with whom he was friendly, including Jimi Hendrix and Wilson Pickett.
Bobby Womack’s songs were recorded by Janis Joplin, Wilson Pickett and many others. His friend Sam Cooke persuaded him to let the Rolling Stones record It’s All Over Now.
He also worked as a session guitarist, appearing on recordings by Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Dusty Springfield, and Pickett.
From 1970-90, Bobby Womack charted 36 singles including That’s the Way I Feel About Cha and Woman’s Gotta Have It.
According to the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, a series of personal tragedies including the deaths of two sons led him to drug abuse.
After a long musical hiatus, in 2009 he was tapped by Gorillaz co-founder Damon Albarn to record a song for the group’s third album.
In 2012, Bobby Womack released his first album in more than ten years, entitled The Bravest Man in the Universe.
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Soul star Cecil Womack died last week in Africa at the age of 65, his brother Bobby has confirmed.
Cecil Womack was best known for the 1988 hit Teardrops, which he recorded with his second wife Linda Cooke under the name Womack and Womack.
He also wrote hits for stars including Teddy Pendergrass, The O’Jays and his first wife, Motown singer Mary Wells.
“I was terribly upset when I heard about my brother’s passing, and I still am,” wrote Bobby Womack on Facebook.
“We made music together for a long time, but we’ve had many differences over the years.
“Thankfully we got a chance to reunite last year after a very long separation – and little did I know that it would be the last time I would see him.
“I can only pass along what I have now learned, which is to not let anything – money, success, etc, come between you and your family.”
Born in Ohio, Cecil Womack began his career in gospel group The Womack Brothers, alongside his elder siblings Bobby, Harry, Friendly and Curtis.
They toured with soul star Sam Cooke, who took them under his wing. He eventually persuaded them to start recording secular music and changed their name to The Valentinos.
Several hit records followed, including It’s All Over Now – later a UK number one for The Rolling Stones.
Cecil Womack died last week in Africa at the age of 65
When Sam Cooke was shot dead at the age of 33, the band disintegrated.
Bobby Womack courted controversy by marrying Sam Cooke’s wife, Barbara, two months later. Cecil Womack compounded the scandal by proposing to Sam Cooke’s daughter Linda, then aged 12.
She turned him down, later telling told the Independent newspaper the proposal was simply a “beautiful gesture”, with Cecil Womack “stepping in to protect me” after the death of her father.
For many years, the couple led separate lives. Cecile Womack married My Guy singer Mary Wells and fathered three children. Linda Cooke endured further controversy after a teenage fling with her stepfather, Cecil Womack’s brother, Bobby, by then a successful solo star, was forced to flee the family home at gunpoint.
In 1976, Cecil Womack and Mary Wells divorced, and he quickly rekindled his relationship with Linda Cooke, marrying her a year later in Las Vegas.
Marriage led to a songwriting partnership that produced hits including Love TKO for Teddy Pendergrass and New Day for George Benson.
The duo released their first album as Womack And Womack in 1983, spawning the UK top 20 hit Love Wars, and further singles Baby I’m Scared of You and TKO – a new version of the Teddy Pendergrass song.
However Teardrops, from their fourth album Conscience, is perhaps their best known recording.
A staple of 80s FM radio, it reached number three in the UK charts, with its staccato hook “Footsteps on the dance floor, remind me baby of you”.
It has since been covered by artists as varied as Elton John, the Sugababes and Mercury prize-winners The xx.
During a trip to Nigeria in the 1990s, Linda Cooke and Cecil Womack discovered ancestral ties to the Zekkariyas tribe, and began calling themselves Zeriiya and Zekkariyas respectively.
They later moved to Africa, and recorded an album with their seven children as The House of Zekkariyas. The final Womack and Womack album, Circular Motion, came out in 2007.
Cecil Womack died on February 1 in Africa. His family confirmed his death on Thursday.
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