Patti LaBelle
Patti LaBelle is known for her versatility across rhythm and blues, pop standards, and spiritual songs, and she has sold more than 50 million records worldwide. Forty-two of her singles have appeared on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. With Labelle she recorded “Lady Marmalade” in 1974 and took it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100, and “If Only You Knew” spent four weeks at number one on the R&B chart, her first R&B number one as a solo artist. She has won two Grammy Awards, and in 2021 “Lady Marmalade” became part of the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. After her diabetes diagnosis in 1994 she became a spokesperson for the American Diabetes Association, and she remains an advocate for diabetes, cancer, adoption, and HIV/AIDS causes.
Patti LaBelle, born Patricia Louise Holte, went from choir member to lead vocalist of Patti LaBelle & The Bluebelles and later Labelle, and in 1975 “Lady Marmalade” and the album Nightbirds were both certified gold. “If Only You Knew,” released in 1983, was the first single from her sixth studio album, and “New Attitude,” written and recorded for the 1984 film Beverly Hills Cop, drew a Grammy nomination, reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100, and helped introduce her to the pop world.
She has charted 20 albums on the Billboard 200, two of them in the top 10. In May 1986 “On My Own,” her duet with Michael McDonald, became a gold-certified single, and that June Winner in You achieved platinum status. She won her Grammys for Burnin’, a gold album in 1992, and Live! One Night Only, and in 2001 a cover of “Lady Marmalade” from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack spent five weeks at number one on the Hot 100. In 2017 she launched her own label, GPE Records, and released her first jazz album, Bel Hommage.
LaBelle has 13 Grammy nominations, is an Emmy nominee, has won four Image Awards and an American Music Award, and in 1993 received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
She has written six books, among them Don’t Block the Blessings and her New York Times bestselling cookbook, LaBelle Cuisine: Recipes to Sing About. She has appeared in A Soldier’s Story, A Different World, American Horror Story, Empire, and The Kominsky Method, starred in her own series, Out All Night, and the cooking show Patti LaBelle’s Place, performed on Dancing with the Stars and The Masked Singer, and starred on Broadway in Your Arms Are Too Short to Box with God, Fela, and After Midnight. In October 2025 she partnered with Primary Wave Music on her artist royalties across a catalog of 18 studio albums, 3 live albums, 14 compilation albums, and 47 singles. Patti’s Good Life, the food and lifestyle brand she introduced in 2007, offers frozen comfort foods, breakfast items, and desserts, including her sweet potato pie, at retailers including Walmart and Target.
