Kim English, Chicago singer whose dance hits fueled house music scene, has died

House music diva Kim English topped U.S. and global dance charts, and her songs routinely rang out at clubs and Pride Fests from Chicago to Paris and London to Ibiza.

Her death Tuesday, at 48, came after she had been dealing with kidney failure for five years, according to Vickie Markusic, her manager, who said she had been on dialysis and awaiting a transplant.

The longtime Chicago-area resident went to Kenwood Academy, where she was trained by renowned vocal teacher Lena McLin, whose uncle was gospel music legend Thomas A. Dorsey. The church echoed in English's elastic, octave-skipping vocals.

"We're talking about basically house music anthems because she had that soaring voice," said Metro club founder Joe Shanahan, who heads the advisory committee for the Frankie Knuckles Foundation, dedicated to the house music pioneer. "Like Aretha, like Whitney, like Mavis, many of the greats, it comes from the church. If you brought her in on a session, you were bringing in the top, you were bringing in the best."

With eight No. 1 Billboard dance-chart hits, "Kim may be one of the most successful people to have ever sung club music," said Byron Stingily, a producer and singer-songwriter who worked with English.

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