The voice that sang 'Beauty and the Beast' has fallen silent. Peabo Bryson, the soul singer who duetted with Celine Dion on the Oscar-winning ballad, has died. Reports confirm the 73-year-old passed away at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Cause of death has not been released, but a statement from his family said he died 'peacefully, surrounded by loved ones.'
Dion, who recorded the iconic track with Bryson for Disney's 1991 animated classic, was 'heartbroken' by the news, according to a representative. The song spent weeks at number one and won a Grammy for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group. For Dion, it was a career springboard. For Bryson, it was a second act after decades in R&B.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Bryson grew up singing in church choirs and working in a textile mill. He never forgot the working-class roots that shaped him. 'I saw my mother work two jobs to put food on the table,' he once said. 'That's why I sing. To make people feel something, but also to remind them of the dignity in hard work.'
His rise came in the 1970s with hits like 'Feel the Fire' and 'Reaching for the Sky.' But it was the Disney duet that made him a household name. Dion, then a rising Quebecois star, matched him note for note. The track became a wedding staple, a karaoke favourite, a piece of shared pop culture memory.
Yet Bryson often spoke of the industry's inequalities. In a 2019 interview with The Guardian, he said Black artists were 'pigeonholed' and rarely given the same mainstream promotion as white peers. 'Beauty and the Beast was a door opener,' he said. 'But for me, it was also a cage. They wanted me to stay in that fairytale.'
He continued recording, releasing his last album 'Stand for Love' in 2018. He also toured, playing smaller venues, selling out theatres in the North of England, the Midlands, Scotland. His audiences were often older, but he drew in younger fans who knew him from Disney VHS tapes their parents still kept.
News of his death prompted tributes from across the music world. Smokey Robinson called him 'a brother of soul.' Dion's statement read: 'Peabo had a voice that could wrap around you like a warm blanket. I am devastated. The world has lost a treasure.'
For those of us who watch the price of bread and the strength of unions, Bryson's story offers more than a musical legacy. He was a reminder that talent alone is never enough. The industries that profit from our voices are the same ones that underpay the workers who press the records and sell the tickets. Bryson knew that. He said it out loud.
Today we mourn the man who sang about a tale as old as time. But we also remember the mill worker's son who never let the fairytale fool him into forgetting the real world. Rest in power, Peabo Bryson.
