Several online reports indicate that Canadian recording star Sass Jordan has died.

Canadian singer Sass Jordan, one of the country’s most recognizable female rock performers, has died at the age of 63.

Jordan died peacefully on Oct. 2, surrounded by family, according to reports on her social media pages. Her family described her as an “inimitable force of nature” and an “irreplaceable being of light and joy.”

Jordan’s death comes just weeks after she cancelled a number of scheduled Ontario performances because of what her representatives described as a serious medical issue.

In September, Jordan’s team told organizers that the singer had been advised to take a break from all engagements for the remainder of the year. No details about the medical issue were released.

Born Sarah Jordan in Birmingham, England, in 1962, she moved with her family to Montreal when she was three and grew up to become one of Canada’s leading rock voices.

Her career took off in the late 1980s with the release of her debut album, Tell Somebody, which produced several Canadian hits and earned her a Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist in 1989.

But it was her 1992 album Racine that established Jordan as a major Canadian rock star.

The album produced some of her best-known songs, including Make You a Believer, I Want to Believe, You Don’t Have to Remind Me and Goin’ Back Again. Make You a Believer reached the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, while Billboard named Jordan its top female rock artist of 1992.

Jordan’s career extended well beyond her own recordings.

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In 1992, she recorded Trust in Me with Joe Cocker for The Bodyguard soundtrack, after the movie’s star Kevin Costner reportedly heard her music on the radio. The soundtrack became one of the biggest-selling albums in music history.

She also became an important figure in the career of another musician who would go on to become an international star.

A young Taylor Hawkins played drums for Jordan’s band during the 1990s, years before he joined Foo Fighters. Hawkins later credited Jordan with helping him learn how to be a professional rock musician and getting him his first rock-and-roll paycheque.

The two reunited in Toronto in 2015, when Jordan joined Foo Fighters onstage to perform the Faces’ Stay With Me. Dave Grohl told the crowd that Jordan’s role in Hawkins’ early career was significant.

Jordan also became a familiar face to a much broader Canadian audience when she joined Canadian Idol as a judge in 2003. She remained on the judging panel for all six seasons of the show.

She continued recording and touring well into her 60s, increasingly exploring the blues side of her musical influences. Her 2020 album Rebel Moon Blues reached No. 5 on Billboard’s Blues Albums chart, while Bitches Blues followed in 2022.

She released Live in New York Ninety-Four in 2023, an archival live recording featuring Hawkins on drums.

Jordan had also continued performing in 2026. She appeared at the Kitchener Blues Festival in August and was scheduled for a number of additional concerts later in the year before the reported cancellation of her fall performances.

One of those shows was scheduled for Oct. 9 at the OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, where Jordan was set to perform alongside The Northern Pikes, Odds and The Pursuit of Happiness.

For generations of Canadian music fans, Jordan’s career represented something larger than a string of hit records. She was one of the women who helped establish a powerful, blues-influenced female voice in Canadian rock at a time when the genre remained heavily male-dominated.

Her music, television appearances and mentorship of younger performers made her a familiar figure well beyond the rock audience.

Jordan was married to musician Derek Sharp and they had one daughter.

As news of her reported death spread Saturday, tributes began appearing online from Canadian music fans remembering the singer for the distinctive, gritty voice that made her one of the country’s most recognizable rock performers.


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