Rita MacNeil Dies

MacNeil was awarded Canada’s East Coast Music Association lifetime achievement award in 2005, and won a Juno in 1987 for most promising female artist.

She hosted a television variety show, “Rita & Friends,” which ran on CBC-TV from 1994 to 1997. Known for being extraordinarily shy, MacNeil took a backseat to her extraordinary voice, which her former manager, Brookes Diamond, heard before seeing her.

“It was quite a picture; [my brother and I] were in a field at a folk festival,” Diamond told CBC News. “This voice came through the rain, mist, and we both stopped. We were riding on a dirt bike and the two of us were in tears.”