EIGHTIES' SINGING sensation Angela Bofill is coming to Philadelphia this weekend on a concert tour.
Don't look for her to sing, though.
Bofill will be onstage but a stand-in will be doing the vocalizing. Sadly, that silky, golden voice that charmed us with "I Try," "Angel of the Night," and "This Time I'll Be Sweeter" is long gone, a side effect of a series of strokes that knocked Bofill off her feet first in 2006 and then again the following year.
Her high heels are gone too, replaced by a cane for balance. At 57, Bofill's just glad to be able to walk again. And the voice, the voice that charmed a generation, struggles to speak. The words come slowly.
"I am very grateful to still be alive. Almost died," Bofill told me when we spoke earlier this week.
And no doubt grateful to be back onstage. After a long hiatus, Bofill is on the road for a multicity tour that includes stops in Atlanta, New York City and Boston. Because she no longer sings professionally, she will narrate the Angela Bofill Experience at the Keswick Theatre at 8 p.m. Saturday. Maysa, a singer known for her work with the band Incognito, will sing Bofill's hits with Dave Valentin & the Original Angela Bofill Band.
"I'm talking about the songs, a lot of songs I wrote myself, the stories behind the songs," Bofill said haltingly. "After the strokes, my left side is weak."
Bofill was riding in a vehicle in January 2006 when she sensed something was terribly wrong.
"I feel a pop inside the head. The next thing, I'm babbling. It makes no sense. I'm trying to speak. Only babbling. My brother-in-law asked me, 'What happened?' I said, 'I don't know.' I reached my home. I tried to walk outside the truck. Not stand up. Left side shut down. Now, I had to slow my roll."
Bofill spent two weeks in intensive care, and before she was fully recovered, she had another major setback.
"Another stroke hit me. Ugh. In the same place on the right side of the brain. The right side affects the left side. No more, please, God! No more. I have to stay cool. No stress-out. That's very important," she said, adding that her daughter's puppy, Momo, brings her comfort.
