Sass Jordan, the Canadian rock star known for hits such as “Make You a Believer” and “Tell Somebody” who served as a judge on all six season of “Canadian Idol,” has died. She was 65.
Jordan died Friday surrounded by her family, according to an announcement posted to Instagram Saturday. No cause of death was provided, but she had reportedly canceled a number of performances in Ontario, Canada, in September “due to a serious medical condition.”
“She remains in our hearts, an inimitable force of nature,” her family wrote in the statement accompanying a photo of Jordan cuddling a cat. “An irreplaceable being of light and joy!”
Jordan made her solo debut with her 1988 album, “Tell Somebody,” which led to her winning the Juno Award — the Canadian equivalent of a Grammy — for most promising female vocalist the following year. She moved to Los Angeles in 1990 before releasing her follow-up album, “Racine,” in 1992.
“Racine” remained one of Jordan’s biggest solo albums, with tracks including “Make You a Believer,” “I Want to Believe,” “You Don’t Have to Remind Me” and “Goin’ Back Again.” She also recorded a duet with Joe Cocker, “Trust in Me,” for the 1992 film “The Bodyguard” that year.
“I always think of music as medicine and as healing for myself and for anyone else who wants to join in,” Jordan said in a 2023 interview with the CBC about audiences still responding to her earlier hits when she performed. “[S]o it’s an extremely uplifting thing. … It’s amazing and it’s incredible to see that. It’s incredible to see people responding to something that is genuinely, like you said, 20 years old.”
Born on Dec. 23, 1960, in Birmingham, England, Sarah “Sass” Jordan moved from France to Montreal with her family at age 3 when her father, a French literature professor, took a job at Concordia University, according to a statement shared by her publicist Eric Alper after her death. Seeing David Bowie in concert as a young teenager inspired Jordan to dream of a career in music. She began singing and playing guitar with friends in Westmount Park and by age 16 she was performing with bands in downtown Montreal nightclubs.
“I’m an expert on rebellion,” Jordan told The Times in 1992, reflecting on why she ran away from home at 14. “I didn’t want that clean, wholesome life … It felt so fake. I identified with real people, oppressed people who were outside that life. I wanted to taste real life — street life.”
Throughout her career, Jordan would tour alongside acts including Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen. Her touring band in 1994 included Taylor Hawkins, who would go on to become the drummer for the Foo Fighters. Jordan’s most recent release is the live album from that tour, titled “Live in New York Ninety-Four.” Hawkins died in 2022 at age 50.
For six seasons, Jordan served as one of the judges on the reality competition series “Canadian Idol.” The show aired from 2003 to 2008 and mirrored the format of shows like “Pop Idol” and “American Idol.”
“Over four decades, she gave Canadian rock one of its most recognizable voices, carved out space for women in a genre long dominated by men, and opened doors for the young musicians who came through her band,” Alper said in his statement. “Sass Jordan leaves a catalogue that shaped Canadian rock through the late ’80s and ’90s, a blues renaissance in which her voice grew richer with each record, and a generation of artists, from Idol hopefuls to a future Foo Fighter, who learned from her what it means to give a song everything.”
Jordan is survived by her husband Derek Sharp, daughter Stella Jordan-Sharp, stepdaughter Brianne Sharp and brother Daniel Jordan.
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