High Energy singer Evelyn Thomas dies, aged 70

BBC

Disco singer Evelyn Thomas, whose powerful voice helped define the Hi-NRG scene of the 1980s, has died at the age of 70.

The Chicago-born star scored an international hit with the 1984 single High Energy, which made the top five in the UK and topped the US club charts.

Her death was announced by her producer Ian Levine on social media.

“It is hard for me to accept that my lifelong protege really has left us,” he wrote. “Her music will outlive us all.”

Thomas's daughter, Kimberly, also posted a tribute, alongside a series of personal photos.

"The legacy that my mother left me is beyond words and the memories are undeniably beyond any monetary value," she wrote.

"I want to thank everyone for their prayers and kind words. Now it’s time to heal and to plan.

"RIP mommy."

Born in 1953, Thomas was raised around music. Her mother was a church organist and her grandmother sang in the choir.

"My mother would have the piano and the organ rocking every day. That's just the way it was in our house," she told Soul Music's Justin Krantor in 2009.

After school, she moved to New York to study acting, and sang in early versions of musicals like The Wiz and Les Miserables.

It was on a trip back to Chicago, to sing with her band The Move Mixers, that she was discovered by Levine.

The Mancunian producer had come to the US to discover talent for his newly formed Voltafine Production Company.

After falling in love with Thomas's voice, he cut some tracks with her and secured a recording contract with 20th Century Records.

Her debut single, Weak Spot, became her first chart success, peaking at number 26 in the UK, and securing an appearance on Top Of The Pops.

Kimberly Thomas / Facebook

However, the follow-up, Doomsday, just missed the Top 40; and Thomas's albums I Wanna Make It On My Own and Have A Little Faith In Me did not trouble the charts.

Undeterred, she became a fixture of the Northern Soul scene, touring clubs as part of the Chicago Soul Revue, with fellow singers Barbara Pennington and LJ Johnson.

In 1984, she reunited with Levine to record High Energy - a soaring, joyful love song that, in the words of Smash Hits magazine, managed to "straddle both gay disco and old Motown - the two main Hi-NRG ingredients."

It became a defining song for the genre, marrying Thomas's gospel-trained, four octave vocals to a pulsing electronic beat. In 2022, Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the top 200 dance songs of all time.

The song still commands listeners - racking up more than 15 million streams on Spotify.

DJ and music historian Bill Brewster commented, "Evelyn’s voice had this incredible ability to convey both vulnerability and strength. She was a cornerstone of the hi-NRG movement."

In his tribute, Levine said he had fallen out of touch with Thomas after their final recording session in 2009.

However, she "reached out to me in love” a few months ago, knowing that she was dying.

Upon hearing the news, Levine and his High Energy co-writer Fiachra Trench "immediately dropped everything” to create one last song for Thomas, called Inspirational.

Although she was too ill to record the song, her daughter intends to record it as a tribute to her mother's legacy..

"it is hard for me to accept that my lifelong protege really has left us," Levine concluded.

"Her music will outlive us all."