Eva Cassidy

Undiscovered and relatively unknown when she died of melanoma at the age of 33 in 1996, Eva Cassidy became posthumously famous when BBC Radio 2 presenter Terry Wogan became smitten by her retrospective collection Songbird and gave it concentrated airplay. Tender versions of the standard Over The Rainbow and Sting's Fields of Gold, in particular, struck a chord and the album topped the UK chart and triggered interest in Cassidy's other previously neglected recordings. She'd started her career playing and singing with local Washington area bands Easy Street and Stonehenge and also worked as a session singer, before forming her own band with bass player Chris Biondo. She recorded her first album The Other Side - a collaboration with Chuck Brown - in 1992, including Fever and God Bless The Child. She happily embraced all musical styles, including blues, jazz and pop, but while diversity was her trademark, it proved a stumbling block to serious success in her own lifetime.