Alice Tan Ridley, who spent three decades entertaining subway riders in New York City as a gospel and R&B singer before wowing viewers on NBC’s America’s Got Talent and releasing her first studio album when she was 63, has died. She was 72.
Ridley died March 25 in New York, her family announced. Survivors include her daughter, the Oscar-nominated actress Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).
The seventh of eight children, Ridley was born on Dec. 21, 1952, in Charles Junction, Georgia. In a 2016 New York Times profile, she recalled being influenced by genres like jazz and gospel and by such artists as Aretha Franklin.
She graduated from Stewart County High School in 1959, moved to New York in 1971, earned her teaching license from the New York State Board of Education and had two children.
Ridley taught special-needs children at P.S. 134 in the Kensington neighborhood of Brooklyn but lost her job and got divorced, and as a single mother with kids, she began making a living by singing for tips in the subway, primarily at the Herald Square station.
“I was a big secret,” Ridley told the Times of busking by the subway. “With so many people passing by, I wondered, ‘Why doesn’t somebody introduce me to someone who could help me out?’”
She won $25,000 on the 2002 pilot episode of Fox’s 30 Seconds to Fame and was a contestant on Showtime at the Apollo, and she performed “Amazing Grace” in the David LaChapelle documentary Rize and “America the Beautiful” in the film Heights, starring Elizabeth Banks and Glenn Close. She also was a singer at Harlem’s Cotton Club for many years.
When she was 58, Ridley was spotted in the subway by Israeli student Dvir Assouline, who started managing her in 2010. That year, she auditioned for AGT with the Etta James classic “At Last,” and her raw power and charm immediately resonated with the judges. She would advance all the way to the semifinals.
In September 2016 at age 63, she released her debut album, Never Lost My Way, a collection of her favorite tunes as well as original songs co-written with producer Jay Stolar. She tackled such emotional topics as watching her children grow and dealing with a cheating lover.
After appearing on America’s Got Talent, she and a seven-piece band headlined at venues such as B.B. King’s club in New York City and at performing arts centers across the U.S. She also performed in Argentina, Germany, Uruguay, Morocco, Romania and The Netherlands and sang the pop song “Good Feeling,” used for commercials for Buick and Royal Caribbean Cruises.
She did go back to her beginnings as well, as the Times noted, with Ridley performing in the subway again in 2014. “When I was no longer down under there, I missed it,” she told the newspaper.
Ridley spent her 60s touring and performing but was forced to retire in 2018 when she reportedly began suffering from dementia.
In addition to her daughter, Ridley is survived by her son, Ahmed; siblings James and Tommy; sisters Julia and Mildred; and twin grandchildren, Cooper and Maya. She was predeceased by another sister, Dorothy Pittman Hughes, a civil rights activist, and another brother, singer Roger Ridley.
Deborah Wilker contributed to this report.