Pride was a central concept for her, both in personal and political contexts. In her songs Nancy Wilson always insisted on a strong female autonomy, in her career planning she always demanded for herself as a black independent woman a piece of the cake in the US entertainment industry. The fact that she knew how to play sentiment and sarcasm equally brilliantly may have helped her to assert her demands.

Just take "Guess Who I Saw Today," a song from 1960, when Wilson had just come from the US Rust Belt to New York and was now recorded as a new vocal sensation by the jazz company. In the play, a woman gets her husband in town cheating; first emotional, then more laconic, later with almost ironic sharpness she describes the scenario. In the end there is a tidiness that one may assume that the woman will already draw the right conclusions from the fraud.

Nancy Wilson sings "Guess Who I Saw Today"

Nancy Wilson sang soul, blues and gospel, but she was no pain sister. It phrased dry, clear and always with playful ease, while listening to their most beautiful songs you had the feeling, you float on a flying carpet over a brightly lit city. Dramas everywhere, opportunities everywhere.

Ambassador of the Civil Rights Movement

Born in Ohio in 1937, Wilson was the daughter of a steelworker and a maid. When she heard about Dinah Washington on the radio, she knew that she wanted to become a jazz singer. From an early age, she became politically active. After her arrival in New York, she quickly became part of the civil rights movement. In 1965 she took part in the famous protest marches in Selma, Alabama, alongside Martin Luther King.

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Jazz singer: A voice like a flying carpet

Again and again, the artist commented on social developments; she was the main ambassador of the Civil Rights Movement, allowing her to play the laws of the entertainment industry on her terms.

Wilson's demeanor was effortlessly elegant, her gigantic output seemed to give her no effort, at least none that could be heard in her voice, which was supple until old age. In the more than 50 years of her work, she is said to have released more than 70 albums. She moved between the styles and formats, between American songbook and easygoing mainstream pop. She interpreted Beatles songs, sang musical numbers and disco tracks - but always with virtuoso, occasionally a little baroque jazz phrasing. The "Time" magazine celebrated her as a "translator of pop standards into the jazz idiom".

Nancy Wilson simply knew no fear of contact. She starred in several TV shows in the 1960s and '70s, including The FBI and Hawaii 5-O. In the mid-Seventies, she had her own program at NBC, "The Nancy Wilson Show." She knew how to improvise casually, the microphone usually held her with two fingers like a magic wand, song presentations and commentaries flowed smoothly into each other. Melancholy and bite were closely interlinked here as well.

Even in the most entertaining moments she remained the voice of pride.

Nancy Wilson died after a long illness on Tuesday in Pionieertown, a community near the Joshua Tree National Park, her manager told the Associated Press. She was 81 years old.