Woodstock star Melanie Safka passes away at 76

Melanie Safka, the singer and songwriter who charmed audiences with her husky voice and soulful lyrics, sadly passed away on January 23, 2024, aged 76. Safka rose to prominence with her performance at Woodstock in 1969 and went on to produce major pop hits like Brand New Key and Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) in the early ’70s, which scaled the charts.

The news of her death came from her publicity firm, Glass Onyon PR, and it was also announced on social media by her children, Leilah, Jeordie, and Beau Jarred. However, no cause of death or location was revealed in the announcement.

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Remembering Melanie Safka, the folk-rock singer

The Facebook post from Melanie's three children, Leilah, Jeordie, and Beau Jarred, reads,

“We are heartbroken, but want to thank each and every one of you for the affection you have for our Mother, and to tell you that she loved all of you so much! 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. 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.”

They have also requested fans and mourners to light a candle in honor of the singer.

“Raise, raise them high, high up again. Illuminate the darkness, and let us all be connected in remembrance of the extraordinary woman who was wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend to so very many people.”

While no information on the cause of death was given, Melanie Safka's record label, Cleopatra, mentioned an “illness” in their statement.

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Melanie Safka was 22 when she appeared at Woodstock

Melanie Safka was born in Queens, New York, in 1947. By the time she was 22, she was already well known in the New York folk scene and had also appeared at Woodstock. She was one of the only three solo women, along with Janis Joplin and Joan Baez, to appear at the Woodstock festival in 1969. She had described that experience as,

“an unbelievably frightening day. I never even felt like I was a hippy, I didn’t like the term. If anything, I was the beat generation – people in the Village expressing themselves in so many ways, not being pigeonholed.”

Melanie's bright but husky voice resonated both with pop fans and the counterculture alike, and she was signed to the Buddah label. With them, she released her debut album, Born to Be, in 1968, which went up to the Top 10 in France and the Netherlands. Her 1970 single, Lay Down (Candles in the Rain), became her first hit, reaching No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was inspired by the sight of the Woodstock crowd lighting candles.

Melanie Safka's biggest hit was Brand New Key, which charmed listeners as well as generated controversy. The song was said to have been banned by some radio stations because some found s*xual innuendo in its lyrics. Melanie had acknowledged this interpretation but insisted that this was not her intention.

“‘Brand New Key’ I wrote in about 15 minutes one night. I thought it was cute; a kind of old ’30s tune. I guess a key and a lock have always been Freudian symbols and pretty obvious ones at that. There was no deep serious expression behind the song, but people read things into it.”

According to Variety, Melanie had been working on a cover album, Second Hand Smoke, at the time of her death. She had also recorded a cover of Morrissey’s Ouija Board Ouija Board, Radiohead’s Creep, Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin, Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence, and David Bowie’s Everyone Says Hi.

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Despite her well-deserved fame, Melanie Safka did not always get her due in the male-dominated folk-rock scene of her time and was rarely mentioned in the company of female artists either.