Singer Melanie Safka, known as “The First Lady of Woodstock” for playing the 1969 festival at just 22 years old, who also had hits in the 1970s including “Brand New Key” and “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain),” has died. She was 76.
Melanie’s kids, Leilah, Jeordie and Beau Jarred confirmed her death Wednesday in a Facebook post, writing, “This is the hardest post for us to write, and there are so many things we want to say, first, and there’s no easy way except to say it … Mom passed, peacefully, out of this world and into the next on January, 23rd, 2024.”
A cause of death was not given in the Facebook post.
The Post has contacted a rep for Melanie for comment.
Her children asked fans to remember their mom by lighting a candle at 10 p.m. CT on Wednesday.
“She was one of the most talented, strong and passionate women of the era and every word she wrote, every note she sang reflected that,” they wrote. “Our world is much dimmer, the colors of a dreary, rainy Tennessee pale with her absence today, but we know that she is still here, smiling down on all of us, on all of you, from the stars.
In 2019, Melanie reflected on playing Woodstock in an interview with AP.
“I had an out-of-body experience and I wasn’t altered by drugs,” she claimed, recalling the anticipation of her getting on the stage building all day as she watched acts like Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead and Joan Baez take the stage.
“The terror kept building in me. The thought of me performing in front of all of those people and that huge stage — I was all by myself,” she said. “Then it started to rain and I truly believed that everyone was going to get up and go home. It’s raining, I’m free, I’ll go back to life as it was. Maybe I will be an archaeologist; maybe I will join the Peace Corps. That’s when they said, ‘You’re next.’”
Melanie was reportedly working on an album full of cover songs titled “Second Hand Smoke,” her label, Cleopatra, told the Hollywood Reporter.
Her 32nd album was set to include covers of Morrissey’s “Ouija Board Ouija Board” and Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”
She also reportedly recorded her own versions of Radiohead’s “Creep,” the Moody Blues’ “Nights In White Satin,” Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence” and David Bowie’s “Everyone Says Hi” for the album.
“I am profoundly heartbroken by the loss of one of the most remarkable female artists of our generation,” Brian Perera of Cleopatra Records said in a statement to The Post. “In the years ahead, I am committed to collaborating closely with her children to honor and perpetuate her extraordinary legacy for future generations.”
He continued, “Our hearts are collectively shattered; she was not only an immense talent but also a truly wonderful person to know and work alongside. Her presence in the music and beyond will be deeply missed.”
The Astoria native wrote “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” based on her Woodstock experience. The song inspired fans to light candles at her shows, which, as she wrote for Rolling Stone in 2019, “became so connected with my concerts that my shows were getting banned because fire departments wouldn’t approve them.”
Her 1971 hit “Brand New Key” was featured in Dirk Diggler’s porn audition scene of “Boogie Nights,” as well as “Jackass 3D,” “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The Bridge” and “Doctor Who.”