Posted on 06/02/2026 4:55:27 PM PDT by nickcarraway
He performed on "Beauty and the Beast" with Céline Dion and on “A Whole New World” with Regina Belle.
Peabo Bryson, the two-time Grammy-winning R&B artist memorable for his work on the hit Disney songs “Beauty and the Beast” and “A Whole New World,” died Tuesday. He was 75.
Bryson died in Marietta, Georgia, three days after a representative for the singer announced he had suffered a stroke. He also had a massive heart attack in 2019. The rep said he “transitioned peacefully at 5:00 p.m. ET on the evening of Tuesday, June 2, 2026, surrounded by the love of his family and those closest to him.”
“We are tremendously moved by the outpouring of love, prayers and support from fans, friends, and colleagues around the world,” Bryson’s family said in a statement. “While our hearts are broken, we find comfort in knowing how deeply Peabo was loved and how many lives were touched by his voice and his generous spirit. His legacy and music will live on for generations to come.”
Born Robert Peapo Bryson on April 13, 1951, in Greenville, South Carolina, he launched his professional music career right after high school.
He toured with Moses Dillard in the late 1960s before going on to release his first album, Peabo, in 1976 and signing with Capitol Records a year later. He moved to Elektra Records in 1984, where he voiced the theme song for the soap opera One Life to Live in 1985, before returning to Capitol a few years later.
Across his music career, he released some 20 albums, with songs including If “Ever You’re in My Arms Again,” “Can You Stop the Rain,” “Feel the Fire” and “Tonight, I Celebrate My Love,” with Roberta Flack.
In addition to several Grammy nominations, Bryson won two Grammys for best pop performance by a duo or group with vocal for “Beauty and the Beast” with Céline Dion in 1993 for Beauty and the Beast and for “A Whole New World” with Regina Belle in 1994 for Aladdin.
In the late 1990s, Bryson also performed on the U.S. concert tour of The Wiz revival. He released his most recent album, Stand for Love, in 2018 through Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis’s Perspective Records.
Bryson is survived by his wife, Tanya Bonaface Bryson; his children, Robert and Linda; and three grandchildren. Details about a celebration of life and memorial arrangements will be announced.
RIP
Great singer.
Crazy, my hubby mentioned his death as I was watching BATB tonite on Freeform!
Another excellent black male ballad singer of the early ‘80s with technically just a few hits, one solo.
When they actually still would sing melodiously and not yack odiously.
He actually had numerous hits:
Peabo Bryson - If Ever You're In My Arms Again
Peabo Bryson and Roberta Flack Tonight I Celebrate My Love
Peabo Bryson - Through the Fire
Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle - A Whole New World (Aladdin theme)
Celine Dion & Peabo Bryson - Beauty And The Beast (movie theme)
Peabo Bryson - By The Time This Night Is Over (from Kenny G Live)
Peabo Bryson - Can You Stop The Rain
Peabo Bryson - Soul Survivor (Michael Bolton cover)
RIP
What is BATB?
To be honest most of those I didn’t know.
A scan over his discography showed he really didn’t have that much, esp himself. Lots of show and duets, so maybe he’s the Kenny Loggins of the ballad soul side.
Great singer, just not that many hits outside “soul”. Most people don’t know who he is, including my husband when he read it out to me.
Beauty and the Beast.
There are a heck of a lot of people who don't put soul music in an "outside" box in the larger world of pop music. And the show and duet tunes are all great crossover and mainstream hits and are widely known and loved so they should not be dismissed or thought little of. Probably not your cup of tea or on your playlist, but for music lovers as a whole, he was widely known, loved, and admired.
As with most popular music, sometimes it depends where one is born, and lives, and what crowd one hang out in their formative years witch forms ones musical taste or awareness and may be more or less eclectic depending on that. Nothing wrong with that; that's just how it goes sometimes.
As you can see by my posts, he’s a great singer. But in truth he only “hit” top 40 in popular (meaning everything together) 4 times.
This is like me claiming country singers even in the heights of the ‘90s were hugely known. Definitely int the country category, but any given person would say, “who?” Few of them had hits on the overall popular charts.
It’s just a statement of fact. Few people even my age would know Bryson. I know him because I recall him having even a solo hit in the ‘80s.
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