Stamp of Salome Bey, Canada’s ‘first lady of the blues,’ unveiled

TORONTO – Late blues legend Salome Bey is getting the star treatment she deserves as the face of a new Canada Post stamp, her daughter says.

SATE Bey and her sister tUkU, born Jacintha Tuku Matthews, were among those to attend Thursday’s launch of a commemorative stamp of the singer, songwriter, composer and actress known as Canada’s “first lady of the blues.”

The stamp cements Bey’s status as a Canadian “icon” whose powerful voice resonated both as a performer and a champion of young and Black artists, said SATE, who is a singer like her mother.

“I feel like this stamp is going to put light on her in a way that it is not on her currently,” SATE said by phone ahead of Thursday’s event.

The stamp’s design, which is based on a photo of Bey with her hair braided into a dramatic top knot, captures the artist’s “statuesque” and “royal” persona, said SATE.

As a complement to the postal tribute, Bey’s estate reissued her self-titled 1970 solo album on digital platforms Thursday, featuring tracks “Hit The Nail Right On The Head” and “Star Dust.”

SATE said she hopes the stamp’s launch will spur new and longtime fans of Bey to rediscover her work and give her due recognition for her trailblazing talent and leadership.

“If you don’t know who she is, you find out who she is,” she continued. “It’s nostalgic for the people that know her, for the people that she’s mentored, or directed or shared stages with.”

Bey, who died in 2020 at age 86, was a towering figure in Canada’s music and theatre scenes.

Born in Newark, N.J., Bey toured as part of the sibling act Andy & the Bey Sisters before moving to Toronto in 1964.

Bey wowed audiences with her soulful sound onstage and in the studio, and eventually turned her talents to writing songs and musicals.

She went on to nurture and teach up-and-coming Black artists, including singer and actor Jackie Richardson and award-winning soul singer Divine Brown.

Her commitment to Canada’s creative community won her a 1992 Toronto Arts Award, and the Martin Luther King Jr. Award for lifetime achievement from the Black Theatre Workshop of Montreal in 1996.

In 2005, Bey was made an honorary member of the Order of Canada. In 2021, she was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 21, 2022.

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