Grammy-winner opera singer Jessye Norman dies at 74

US opera singer Jessye Norman, one of the most renowned sopranos of the 20th Century, has died at the age of 74. A native of Augusta, Georgia, Norman was one of the rare black singers to reach fame in the opera world. The Grammy-winner died at a New York hospital due to septic shock and multi-organ failure, the result of complications from a spinal cord injury sustained in 2015.

Norman, a soprano, was born in the U.S. state of Georgia and spent much of her early career in Europe before making her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1983. She made a foray into gospel at age four, and as a young girl began listening to radio broadcasts of performances at the Metropolitan Opera, where she would go on to star.

As one of the most popular opera singers of the 1980s and 1990s, she sang at the presidential inaugurations of Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, as well as the 60th birthday celebrations of Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

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