Angela Bofill, the singer-songwriter behind hits “I Try,” “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter” and “I’m On Your Side,” has died. She was 70.
The Cuban-Puerto Rican musician died on Thursday at her daughter’s home in Vallejo, California, her friend and rep Rich Engel told People. A cause of death was not immediately available. Engel also shared the news of her passing on Bofill’s Facebook page in two separate posts.
“ON BEHALF OF MY DEAR FRIEND ANGIE, I AM SADDENED TO ANNOUNCE HER PASSING ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 13TH,” he wrote in the first social media post, before sharing funeral information.
In the second post, he added, “JUST TO CLEAR UP THE CONFUSION. ON BEHALF OF SHAUNA BOFILL, HUSBAND CHRIS PORTUGUESE, WE ARE SADDENED BUT MUST REPORT THAT THE PASSING OF ANGELA YESTERDAY IS INDEED TRUE. WE THANK MELBA MOORE AND MAYSA FOR THEIR EARLY CONDOLENCES. THANKS FOR YOUR MANY POSTS.”
Angela Tomasa Bofill was born on May 2, 1954, in Brooklyn, to a Cuban father and Puerto Rican mother. As a teen, she sang in New York City’s All City Chorus, which featured the best singers from all high schools in the five boroughs. She received a bachelor of music degree from the Manhattan School of Music before beginning her professional career in the 1970s.
In 1978, she was signed by GRP Records and released her first album, Angie, which was received well by critics and fans. It included one of her most iconic hits, “This Time I’ll Be Sweeter,” and the jazz composition, “Under the Moon and Over the Sky.”
Less than a year later, she released her second album, Angel of the Night, which outperformed the previous one and included singles “What I What Wouldn’t Do (For the Love of You)” and “I Try,” which Bofill wrote. The artist’s early success with her albums made her one of the first Latina singers to make it into the R&B and jazz markets.
Her third album, Something About You, was her first with Arista Records. Narada Michael Walden served as producer on it, and Clive Davis served as the executive. While “Holdin’ Out for Love” and title track “Something About You” made it into the R&B Top 40, the album didn’t perform as well as the previous two and didn’t succeed in its attempt to move her into mainstream music.
Bofill and Walden collaborated on two more albums — Too Tough, which featured “I’m On Your Side,” and Teaser — before she moved over to Capitol Records in the 1980s and worked with Norman Connors on Intuition. Over the next several years, she recorded three more albums and provided backing vocals for Diana Ross and Kirk Whalum, as well as Connors’ Eternity.
Prior to her death, the singer-songwriter suffered two strokes — one in 2006 and the other in 2007. Following the first one, she was paralyzed on her left side and required speech and physical therapy. While she did not have health insurance at the time to pay for her hospital bills, her manager organized a benefit concert to raise the funds she needed. Engel collaborated with New York radio stations Kiss FM and WFAN-FM for the show, which took place in Englewood, New Jersey.
Bofill, who was inducted into the Women’s Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2023, took five years off from performing The Angela Bofill Experience after her second stroke, which resulted in her having speech and mobility impairment. While she couldn’t sing in the show, fans would come to hear her talk about her life, and other artists performed some of her hit songs.
In 2011, she spoke with The Washington Post about her return to the stage. “I feel happy performing again,” she told the publication at the time. “I need crowd. In the blood, entertain. Any time a crowd comes to see me, I’m surprised. No sing no more and still people come. Wow. Impressed.”
Bofill’s funeral will be held at St. Dominic’s Church in Vallejo on June 28 at 1 p.m., according to Engel’s Facebook post.
She is survived by her husband, Chris, and daughter Shauna.
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