The Queen is Dead. Long Live the Queen.

Earlier this evening Ms. Eartha Kitt died at the age of 81.  She died  from advanced colon cancer her publicist Patty Freeman told CNN this evening. Kitt is probably best known for one of her lead roles as Catwoman in the original Batman series with Adam West as well as her recording of  ‘Santa Baby’.

I have two other memories of Ms. Kitts music. I was first introduced to it in 2004 when I was on Study Abroad in USC. Late night studying and cramming with a certain Student body president – Zach I miss you darling!- precipated the need for some late night music. Ordinarily in this situation, one would expect the soothing airs of the Austrian Operatic society perhaps or at a stretch some calming background music. Instead, I was treated to the bolshy magnificant opening bars of a song, with trumpets, saxophones and the most endearing husky voice I had ever heard. It was quite the education. It was an even greater education watching Zach lip-sync word-by-word each and every sylable. Ever since that faithful evening, I fell in love with the range, diversity and sheer marvellousness of the performances of her music.

My second memory of Ms.Kitt’s music was earlier this year – January 2008 in Lanzarote. My family and I went to the “Music Hall Tavern“. In between our Chicken, Chips and Sanquina we were entertained continiously for the evening with many lip-sync’d renditions of the classics and the not so classics. One of the fablis queens began the ‘Champagne Taste’ number. Unfortunately some four years later and having acquired a certain taste for knowing lyrics to most of my favourite songs, fuelled by the copious amounts of beer and Sanguina, I began lipsyncing the song as it was being performed, much to the bemusement of my parents and family. This is where they tend to pretend I am the adopted son who doesn’t know any better. You can imagine there even greater mortifcation when the aforementioned fablis queen spotted my lip-syncing and then walked over to me with a glass of bubbly.  I duly drank it and she went out with her performance, whilst my family resumed their mortification on a grander scale.

Ms. Kitt has managed to keep me entertained in three continents – North America, Europe and the West Coast of Africa.

Thank you for the music Ms. Kitt. You will be missed.

Eartha Kitt 1927 – 2008.