Percy Sledge concert & # xE0 ; Monaco in 2008.
Percy Sledge concert in Monaco in 2008. – BEBERT BRUNO / SIPA
* Anne Demoulin

Percy Sledge died Tuesday morning at his home in Baton Rouge, Louisiana at the age of 73 years, confirmed to ABC, his agent Steve Green. The singer died after a long battle against cancer. He was the unforgettable voice of When a Man Loves a Woman , which was tops US charts in 1966.

The soul singer owes his career to chance. A native of Alabama, he connects the odd jobs to support her five children when the head of the music department of his former high school he joined the contacts for a choir.

At a party a little watered, it sings a lyricist has impresses Quin Ivy and became his biggest hit, recorded for the house of Atlantic records, When a Man Love a Woman .

The song evokes a girl Percy Sledge loved and who left him for another. If the singer put twelve songs on the US charts until 1969, such as Warm and Tender Love , It Tears Me Up , Out of Left Field and Take Time to Know Her , his first title will remain his biggest success.

A victim of serious health problems in the 1970s, he will find the scene in the 1990s . Her album Blue Night , released in 1996 in collaboration with Bobby Womack, Steve Cropper, Barry Goldberg and Mick Taylor (ex Rolling Stones), will be appointed at the Grammy Awards in the category “Best Contemporary Blues Album, Vocal or Instrumental. “