AceShowbiz - Sass Jordan, the Canadian rock and blues singer whose 1992 album Racine made her one of her country's most recognizable voices and who spent six seasons as a judge on Canadian Idol, died peacefully on October 2, 2026, surrounded by those who loved her most. She was 65.

Her family announced the death and remembered her as "an inimitable force of nature" and "an irreplaceable being of light and joy," a woman whose generosity and fire touched everyone who shared a stage, a studio or a kitchen table with her. Over four decades, the family said, she gave Canadian rock one of its most recognizable voices, carved out space for women in a genre long dominated by men, and opened doors for the young musicians who came through her band.

Born Sarah Jordan on December 23, 1960, in Birmingham, England, she was the daughter of French literature professor Albert Jordan and former English ballerina Jean Lanceman. At three, she moved with her family from France to Montreal, where her father had taken a professorship at Concordia University. Classical music filled the household, which made hearing The Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" on the radio feel like a revelation. Seeing David Bowie on his Diamond Dogs Tour, her very first concert, settled the question of what she would do with her life.

As a young teen she sang and played guitar with friends in Westmount Park, and by 16 she was fronting bands in downtown Montreal clubs, later becoming singer and bassist for local favourites The Pinups. Around 1981, a young manager named Simon Fuller, stranded in Montreal after one of his touring acts ran out of money, spent two weeks living in her basement. Their paths would cross again two decades later.

Her recording career began in 1986 as co-lead vocalist on "Come On (Baby Tonight)" from Bündock's album 'Mauve'. She quickly became a sought-after session singer in Montreal, most notably on The Box's breakthrough "L'Affaire Dumoutier (Say To Me...)", and appeared in the band's video for "Closer Together". Her songwriting found an audience too, as Michael Breen took her composition "Rain" onto the Canadian charts in 1987.

Atlantic Records released her solo debut, Tell Somebody, in 1988, and the title track rose to #11 in Canada. "They played the 'Tell Somebody' video on Much Music a lot," she recalled. "I remember going in two weeks from relative obscurity to being recognized as the girl in the video." The album also yielded "Double Trouble", "Stranger Than Paradise" and "So Hard", while her version of the 1965 R&B classic "Rescue Me", recorded for the 'American Boyfriends' soundtrack, charted alongside them. She won the 1989 Juno Award for Most Promising Female Vocalist and went on to Best Female Vocalist nominations in 1990, 1993 and 1995.

After moving to Los Angeles in January 1990, she recorded Racine, released by MCA Records on March 31, 1992. It became the defining album of her career, selling an estimated 450,000 copies worldwide and 100,000 in Canada on the strength of Make You a Believer, "I Want to Believe", "You Don't Have to Remind Me" and "Goin' Back Again", with "Who Do You Think You Are" following in 1993. Make You a Believer climbed to #11 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart, and Billboard named her its top female rock artist of 1992. That same year, after Kevin Costner heard her voice on his car radio, she recorded the duet Trust in Me with Joe Cocker for The Bodyguard, a soundtrack that sold more than 45 million copies. She toured alongside Aerosmith, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and Van Halen.

Behind the kit in her touring band was a 22-year-old Taylor Hawkins, who would go on to join Foo Fighters. "Sass taught me how to be in a rock and roll band and gave me my first rock and roll check," he said. In 1994 she released Rats, the album she always called her favourite. It delivered High Road Easy, a #9 hit in Canada, plus "I'm Not" and Sun's Gonna Rise, which reached #7 at home and earned her a first appearance on the Billboard Hot 100.

With Aquarius Records she released Present in 1997, featuring "Do What I Can" and the 1998 hit "Desire", followed by Hot Gossip in 2000. In 2001 she performed at the Grey Cup halftime show with Michel Pagliaro and starred as Janis Joplin in the off-Broadway production 'Love, Janis'. She also appeared in the Toronto and Winnipeg productions of 'The Vagina Monologues' and guest starred on NBC's Sisters.

In 2003 she joined Canadian Idol as a judge, the only woman on the panel, and remained there for all six seasons, reuniting with series creator Fuller 20 years after those Montreal basement days. Carly Rae Jepsen and Melissa O'Neil were among her favourite contestants. The experience drew her back into the studio for 2006's Get What You Give, produced by Colin Linden in Nashville with guests including Garry Tallent of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, drummers Ken Coomer and Bryan Owings, guitarist Audley Freed of The Black Crowes and keyboardist Richard Bell of The Band.

Her husband, musician Derek Sharp, produced 2009's From Dusk 'til Dawn, recorded in three weeks. "I was thinking about how human beings seem to be more sensitive and worried about things from sunset to sunrise," she explained. "When you're alone is when the fear of death really hits you, and I was trying to write songs that were related to the fears of the middle of the night." In 2011 she reconnected with Rats collaborator Brian Tichy in S.U.N. for 'Something Unto Nothing', alongside Whitesnake's Michael Devin and Tommy Stewart, beginning with the first song they wrote together, "Burned".

From 2012 to 2016 she served as honorary colonel of 417 Combat Support Squadron. On July 9, 2015, she joined Foo Fighters onstage in Toronto for the Faces' "Stay With Me", sharing the moment with Hawkins as Dave Grohl told the crowd how much her music meant to the band.

Her later years brought a run of releases that kept her close to the blues and rock roots she loved, including Racine Revisited, Rebel Moon Blues, Bitches Blues and Live in New York Ninety-Four. A video marking her career and music has been released, offering a look back at the voice that carried Make You a Believer and so much more.