Evelyn Thomas, known for iconic 80s dance hit High Energy, dies aged 70 (2024)

Disco singer Evelyn Thomas has died at the age of 70.

The music star was best known for her hit 1984 High Energy, as well as the tunes Doomsday and Weak Spot.

Announcing her devastating loss, Thomas’s daughter, Kimberly Thomas, shared a heartfelt post on social media in honour of her mother.

She wrote: ‘They called me and I wasn’t available so they called my husband and they gave him the news. She’s gone.

‘The legacy that my mother left me is beyond words and the memories are undeniably beyond any monetary value.

‘I want to thank everyone for their prayers and kind words. Now it’s time to heal and to plan.’

She concluded by saying her late mother is ‘already missed’, adding: ‘RIP mommy’.

The musician – who goes by the stage name Yaya Diamond –also shared two photos of her and her mother holding hands, presumably from her final moments.

An online obituary for Thomas – full name Ellen Lucille Thomas – confirmed that she died in Port Charlotte, Florida.

Remembering his late friend, Northern soul legend Ian Levine shared a poignant tribute on X.

‘I first met her in 1975, in Chicago, when I was only twenty two years old and she was only twenty three. I immediately signed her as an artist and we recorded two Northern Soul songs, Weak Spot and Doomsday,’ he reflected.

In 1978, Levine got Thomas signed to Casablanca Records, under which she released her debut album, I Wanna Make It On My Own.

The duo worked together on several occasions over the years that followed, with Levine signing Thomas on his own label in the 1980s and travelling to Japan with her for gigs.

After 1988, the pair didn’t record together again until 2009, when Thomas went to stay with her collaborator in London.

‘We were then estranged for a further fifteen more years, but then a couple of months ago, knowing that she was dying, she reached out to me in love,’ he penned in his tribute.

‘Fiachra Trench and I reunited after thirty five years, immediately dropped everything and wrote one last song for her, a wonderful uplifting song called Inspirational. She loved it and she really wanted to sing it, but her health deteriorated far too fast and she simply could not do it.

‘Her daughter Kimberly who appeared on the 1984 video for High Energy, is a singer called YaYa Diamond. She wants to record this one last song as a tribute to her beautiful mother.’

He confirmed that her daughter ‘sat by her side and held her hand as she was dying’, hailing her as ‘amazing and caring’.

‘It is hard for me to accept that my lifelong protege really has left us,’ Levine concluded. ‘Her music will outlive all of us.’

While Thomas’s cause of death is unknown, she was previously diagnosed with cancer, which her daughter confirmed in a YouTube video. Her family proceeded to ask for prayer as her health declined.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Thomas worked across genres such as disco, dance, and R&B, getting her big break in 1975 when Levine discovered her.

Weak Spot and Doomsday both hit the UK charts, the success of which saw her fly over to England to appear on Top Of The Tops in 1976.

After a string of hits – including a dance cover of Reflections by The Supremes – Thomas released her final album, Standing at the Crossroads, in 1986.

Thomas is also survived by two grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

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