Patti LaBelle — American Musician born on May 24, 1944,

Patricia Louise Holt-Edwards better known under the stage name Patti LaBelle, is an American singer, author, and actress. LaBelle began her career in the early 1960s as lead singer and front woman of the vocal group, Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. Following the group's name change to Labelle in the early 1970s, she released the iconic disco song "Lady Marmalade" and the group later became the first African-American vocal group to land the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. After the group split in 1976, LaBelle began a successful solo career, starting with her critically acclaimed debut album, which included the career-defining song, "You Are My Friend". LaBelle became a mainstream solo star in 1984 following the success of the singles, "If Only You Knew", "New Attitude" and "Stir It Up", with the latter two crossing over to pop audiences becoming radio staples... (wikipedia)

All I can tell you really is if you get to the point where someone is telling you that you are not great or not good enough, just follow your heart and don't let anybody crush your dream.
So if anybody wants to get me something, get me 60 crabs - one for each year. I don't want no diamonds, I don't want no shoes, I don't want no party. I want some crabs.
Women are strong now. Women are dominating the charts, and women are doing it for themselves. We're kicking butt and taking no prisoners.
I love Canadians because I don't see very much racism in Canada.
I've been shut down, run down, talked about, dogged out, but that never stopped me from the being the true me that's here and will be here.