Michelle Sweeney is a Canadian actress and soul singer. Originally from

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

, she moved to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in the 1980s to perform with the

Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir The Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir is a choir from Montreal, Quebec, Canada that sings primarily traditional and contemporary Gospel music. The choir's repertoire also includes a mix of music ranging from Gregorian chant to Bach chorales, tradit ...

, and has remained based in Montreal since. In addition to performing jazz, soul and blues music, she appeared alongside

Ranee Lee Ranee Lee, CM (born October 26, 1942 in Brooklyn, New York City) is an American jazz singer and musician who resides in Montreal, Quebec. She is also an actor, author, educator and television host. Referred as “''Montreal's Queen of Jazz,''� ...

and

Anthony Sherwood Anthony Sherwood is a Canadian actor, producer, director and writer. Biography Sherwood was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sherwood's grandmother, Alice Kane (née Alice White), was a musician and music teacher, his mother was an amateur singer ...

in a 1986 production of '' Ain't Misbehavin'''. She formed her own group, Michelle Sweeney's Good News Singers, in 1987, and released her first recorded single, "Our Love", that year. In 1988, she appeared on Quebec television alongside

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

and

Johanne Blouin Johanne Blouin (born September 19, 1955), is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She won the Félix Award twice for her albums ''Merci Félix'' (1988) and ''Johanne Blouin'' (1989). Blouin was born in Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec Saint-Hyacinthe (; Fr ...

, performing a medley of " Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" from the musical '' Hair'' with "Quand on arrive en ville" from the musical '' Starmania'', which saw Sweeney widely labelled as the star performer of the show. In 1989 she starred in a production of the jazz review ''

Eubie! ''Eubie!'' Is a revue featuring the music of jazz/swing composer Eubie Blake, with lyrics by Noble Sissle, Andy Razaf, Johnny Brandon, F. E. Miller, and Jim Europe. As with most revues, the show features no book, but instead showcases 23 of Eubie ...

'', and the following year she appeared as a tour guide in the docufiction film '' The Company of Strangers''. She has also had selected other film and television roles throughout her career, most notably in a regular role as school principal Mrs. Morton in the Canadian teen comedy series ''

Student Bodies ''Student Bodies'' is a 1981 American parody slasher film written and directed by Mickey Rose, with an uncredited Michael Ritchie co-directing. A spoof of slasher horror films such as ''Halloween'', ''Friday the 13th'' and '' Prom Night'', '' ...

'' from 1997 to 2000. In 1998 she appeared in a production of the

HIV/AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...

-themed musical ''

Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens ''Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens'' is a musical with music by Janet Hood and lyrics and book by Bill Russell. The work features songs and monologues inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and Edgar Lee Masters' ''Spoon River ...

''. In 2000, Sweeney won the Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award for her career achievements. In 2020 Sweeney premiered her own original one-woman show ''Her Songs, My Story'', in which she blends performances of the music of Aretha Franklin with personal reminiscences of her own life, including the revelation that she suffered for many years as a victim of

domestic abuse Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for '' intimate partne ...

in her prior marriage.Bill Brownstein
"Diva Michelle Sweeney reveals the story of her abusive relationship"
''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', January 7, 2020.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Michelle Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Canadian film actresses Canadian television actresses Canadian musical theatre actresses Canadian jazz singers Canadian blues singers Canadian gospel singers Canadian rhythm and blues singers Canadian soul singers Canadian women jazz singers 20th-century Black Canadian women singers Black Canadian actresses Actresses from Montreal Anglophone Quebec people Singers from Montreal People from Cleveland American emigrants to Canada 21st-century Black Canadian women singers