Lunch Break Video: Celebrating the great Patti LaBelle’s 69th birthday with some of her electric performances

I may not write about her as much as my other divas (Cher, Diana, Barbra and LuPone) but I absolutely adore Patti LaBelle.

Today is her 69th birthday and she is a singer who has only grown more beautiful and whose warmth and kindness radiates in her performances and her interactions with fans.

She was lead singer of Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles in the 60s then transformed into lead singer of the renamed LaBelle in the 1970s with the huge hit Lady Marmalade.

But it wasn’t until the 1980s that we really got to enjoy and appreciate Patti LaBelle the solo superstar. She’s won a Grammy, had huge hits (On Our Own, If You Asked Me Too, New Attitude) and dazzled us in concert and in so many memorable television appearances where she just lets that voice – that magnificent voice – soar.

Here are some Patti performances including her singing the alphabet with The Muppets!