Rita MacNeil was one of the most beloved Canadian singers from the 1980s onward. Her music outsold that of Garth Brooks and she was a fixture on television, including a memorable cameo on Trailer Park Boys. This is the story of Rita MacNeil! 🧵1/15 - ThreadSky

cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social • 1 day ago

Rita MacNeil was one of the most beloved Canadian singers from the 1980s onward.
Her music outsold that of Garth Brooks and she was a fixture on television, including a memorable cameo on Trailer Park Boys.
This is the story of Rita MacNeil!

🧵1/15

Comments

carmafiera.bsky.social•1 day ago

Canadian legend

rutemple.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Thank you for this bio of a delightful musician!

brierhill.bsky.social•1 day ago

Have a listen to the Born A Woman album if you can. It is some of her best

gwenmacbeth2.bsky.social•1 day ago

Love Rita. A group of us middle-aged fan girls attended her outdoor summer concert in Big Pond, spending the weekend at the campground in Ben Eoin, where we met & shared laughs with other Rita die hards from the Maritimes.

mrjasongracey.bsky.social•1 day ago

I like her seemingly random part in Candy Mountain. You’re thinking, man, everybody’s got a bit part in this movie, then Rita MacNeil shows up.

cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social•1 day ago

Rita MacNeil was born on May 28, 1944 in Big Pond, Nova Scotia.
In the mid-1950s, she and her family moved to Toronto where her father was a carpenter and her mother worked for Eaton's. By the time she was a teenager, MacNeil knew she wanted to be a singer.

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cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social•1 day ago

In 1966, she gave birth to a daughter named Laura. She continued to work towards a singing career. In 1967, she married David Langham. The couple had a son, Wade, but divorced in the late-1970s. MacNeil provided for her children by cleaning houses.

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cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social•1 day ago

In 1975, she released her first album, Born A Woman. It was a tribute to women's rights. By 1979, her career was starting to take off and she moved to Sydney, Cape Breton. The album included Who Will I Go To See, which she wrote after her mother's death in 1971.

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cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social•1 day ago

After she visited the Princess Colliery in Sydney Mines, she spoke to miners about the hardships she faced. From that she wrote Working Man. It was first released in 1981. It was released as a single again in 1988 and became a hit and an unofficial anthem for miners.

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cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social•1 day ago

MacNeil's fame rose in the 1980s. In 1985, she sang at the Canada Pavilion in Japan at Expo '85. She then taped a CBC special, Celtic Fantasy. MacNeil performed several times at Expo 86 in Vancouver. Missing Nova Scotia she wrote "She's Called Nova Scotia".

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cdnhistoryehx.bsky.social•1 day ago

In 1987 she released her album Flying on Your Own. It went double platinum in Canada, selling over 200,000 copies in Canada. It earned MacNeil her first Juno Award.
In 1988, Anne Murray covered the title song from that album on her own album, As I Am.

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motherearthrooted.bsky.social•1 day ago

Loved her!

marlostimpson.bsky.social•1 day ago

My mother was a big fan of hers.

danofavonlea1990.bsky.social•1 day ago

My grandmother absolutely loved her music…One time when my grandparents drove around the Cabot Trail they stopped at her tea room in Big Pond and sure enough she was there and they got a beautiful photo with her out front by their camper!

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