James Celerità

Robert Peapo Bryson

Peabo Bryson performing live, lost in the music

Peabo Bryson and Regina Belle performing "A Whole New World"

Peabo Bryson connecting with fans during a late-career concert performance

Peabo Bryson performing "Beauty and the Beast" with Céline Dion

Robert Peapo "Peabo" Bryson was born on April 13, 1951, in Greenville, South Carolina, to Marie Bryson and Telford Copeland. Raised by his mother and maternal grandparents on their farm in Mauldin, South Carolina, he grew up surrounded by the sound and spirit of great music. His mother regularly took him to the Greenville auditorium to hear Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, and Little Richard — and even as a small child, he would sing along so convincingly that audiences turned around to listen. "Take my mother out of the equation," he later said, "and I wouldn't happen."

By 14, Bryson had launched his professional career as a backup singer for Al Freeman and the Upsetters. It was Al Freeman who gave him his stage name: Peabo, an easier rendering of his French West-Indian given name. At 16, he left home to tour the Chitlin' Circuit with Moses Dillard and the Tex-Town Display — an experience he later called the equivalent of a master's degree in musicology. From there he moved into writing, producing, and arranging for Bang Records, before releasing his debut album Peabo in 1976, featuring collaborations with Luther Vandross and Cissy Houston.

Over a 50-year career across Capitol, Elektra, and Columbia Records, Bryson released approximately 20 studio albums and became one of the most celebrated male vocalists in contemporary soul and R&B. His beautifully rich, almost operatic tenor earned him the nickname "The Voice of Love" and drew comparisons — from New York Times critic Jon Pareles — to Pavarotti. He was renowned above all for his duets: platinum collaborations with Natalie Cole and Roberta Flack, and two Grammy-winning Disney duets — "Beauty and the Beast" with Céline Dion and "A Whole New World" with Regina Belle — that earned him back-to-back Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe, and placed his voice at the center of some of the most beloved cinematic moments of the 1990s.

In 2010, he married Tanya Boniface Bryson, a vocalist formerly of the British girl group The 411. Together they raised their son Robert (Kit), who inherited his father's perfect pitch. "She is the other half of my soul that I was born without," Bryson said of his wife — who saved his life through CPR after a heart attack in 2019.

Peabo Bryson passed away on June 2, 2026, in Marietta, Georgia, at the age of 75, just days after suffering a stroke. He was surrounded by family. His voice — warm, searching, and incandescently human — leaves behind a legacy that will endure for generations.

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Robert Peapo Bryson

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