She topped the charts in the 1980's with the voice of an angel and the looks of a bombshell. Even after her star faded a bit here in the US during the 90's and 00's, she still widely performed internationally. But in 2006 her star crashed to the ground when she had the first of her two strokes. Even so, over the years I - and many others, apparently - wondered what became of her. It also made me wonder - again - what happened to someone else.
Angella Bofill's voice has the ability to stir places in one's heart that have been fortified for years in self-defense. Tonight I Give In is filled with almost painful joy, I'm on Your Side makes one ready to enter battle for a loved one and declare your undying loyalty, and This Time I'll be Sweeter can drop you to your knees remembering past remorse. I know - sounds dramatic. But these songs can really make you feel. Give each of the three below a chance. You don't have to listen to each song in its entirety to get the gist of the emotion and the voice.
I'm on Your Side (Audio only)
This Time I'll be Sweeter (Audio only)
This daughter of a Cuban-American father and a Puerto Rican mother grew up in The Bronx where she started performing in her teens. She wrote much of her music and used it to showcase her 3 1/2 octave range. After her 2006 stroke, and her second stroke the following year, that wonderful voice was silenced. "Angie," as she is know to her friends, could not walk or speak for three years. During those three years she lived in a rehab facility.
After being released from the rehab facility, Bofill moved in with her baby sister in California. Friends saw her getting depressed and doing nothing in life. They encouraged her to put together the Angela Bofill Experience, which is what I saw. During this show, a wonderful singer named Maysa sang Bofill's classics - in a voice that rivaled Bofill's. (She was truly amazing.) Bofill's role was to briefly describe the origin of the songs, why she wrote them, etc. This part of the evening was painful.
While Bofill's speech is back, it is very labored. She speaks in very simple, incomplete sentences. If you cringe with compassion when you hear Dick Clark speak on New Year's Eve, you would do a double-wince to hear Bofill. She also needed some prompting by Maysa when it was her turn to speak, almost as if she was a little confused. And watching Bofill get out of the wheelchair and back in it? Ugh. I felt like a voyeur as the clock seemed to tick loudly while the audience held its collective breath.
At one point Bofill played the cowbell with her one functioning arm. At first I thought, "Look what she's been reduced to" but then I realized, "Hey, she's out there, back in front of an audience that loves her decades after her heyday. Good for her!" Even if she was mostly watching someone else perform her songs, she was showered with applause by the audience.
Angela Bofill (left) watching Maysa perform the Bofill hits
A few newspapers, including The Washington Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer, published articles about this Angela Bofill Experience that were interesting to read. This experience and the articles made me wonder about a woman I didn't even know. Bofill's music reminds me of her...although not for reasons you may think.
Back in the 80's I frequented a bar where I would often go after my evening of (college) studying ended because I liked the bartender. This was a small and quiet bar that never had a lot of patrons during the week. One night, a woman came in and sat at the far end of the bar by herself. This meant there were only three of us there.
This woman ordered a drink, got quarters, and played Angela Bofill over and over again. When the jukebox stopped, the woman got up and put more quarters in. In between, she often sat with her head on the bar in obvious emotional pain. Every now and then, she would raise her head - eyes closed - and sing to Bofill's songs in such a beautiful voice. One song - I'm pretty sure it was I'm on Your Side - made her cry. I'll never forget the quiet tears rolling down her cheeks. I now realize she was probably grieving for the loss of a relationship with someone she loved so much that she was still willing to be on that person's side, even if it was obviously killing her.
I still see that woman in my mind's eye today, and probably always will. It was a powerful moment in time for me. Just as I wondered these past years what happened to Angela Bofill, I've wondered more what happened to that woman.
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