Alice Tan Ridley and the joy of music : NPR

By the time Alice Tan Ridley tried out for America's Got Talent in 2010, she had already led a tough, full, and interesting life. Her audition song aptly, was the Etta James classic, “At Last.”

Ms. Ridley, whose death was reported this week, was the 7th child in a large family, born in Charles Junction, Georgia. She came to New York just after high school, in the early 70s.

“I liked that it wasn't Charles Junction,” she told The New York Times in 2016. “It was cars, lights, and people.”

She became a teacher's aide for special needs children in Brooklyn, and married a man from Senegal who drove a cab.

Alice Ridley, called Tan by friends and relatives, had always sung with her family. In New York, she began performing on street corners and in subway stations. After her marriage ended, busking became her livelihood.

Imagine trying to charm even small change from grim-faced New Yorkers trying to sprint in and out of overpacked subway cars.

But Tan's powerful renditions of “I Will Survive”, “My Heart Will Go On”, and other songs stopped travelers in their tracks. She performed in a few clubs, had some TV gigs, and got a regular subway station slot through the “Music Under New York” program run by the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

Eventually a passing student took notice and asked to be her manager.

“Whenever I saw her performing, there were always hundreds of people around her,” Dvir Assouline told The Hollywood Reporter this week. “She brought joy to so many people every day.”

Alice Tan Ridley's singing career picked up. She reached the semi-finals on America's Got Talent, where Meg McAlduff, co-executive producer on the show, told us, “She was a joy to have on set and made friends with everyone. She was always smiling.”

“I remember my mom being hopeful in a way I couldn't be,” her daughter, Gabourey Sidibe — the Academy Award nominated actress — told The New York Times.

Ridley went on to perform in arts centers and nightclubs around the country and overseas. She sang in commercials, and put out an album, called Never Lost My Way.

After her tour ended, she brought her act back to Herald Square station.

“I missed it,” Alice Tan Ridley told The New York Times. She went back down to sing to the city she loved. “My lonely days are over,” as she sang in At Last. “And life is like a song.”