By Adesoba Toluwalope
American Grammy award-winning singer, K.T. Oslin, the first female songwriter to win the CMA Award for Song of the Year, for her 1987 hit “80’s Ladies,” has died.
Oslin had been battling Parkinson’s disease and was diagnosed with Covid-19 last week, according to her friend, journalist Robert K. Oermann, who confirmed her death.
She died at age 78 on December 21, 2020.
Oslin, born Kay Toinette Oslin in Arkansas, was 45 when she released her chart-topping debut country album, 1987’s 80’s Ladies.
Along with the top ten title track, the LP included a pair of country number ones in “Do Ya” and “I’ll Always Come Back.” But it was the nostalgic ballad “80’s Ladies” that won the heart of many.
Oslin told CMT, “I wrote it a little piece at a time.
“It was an idea I had. I thought it would be a song that would be great to do live in concert. I thought it was one of those showpieces. I never dreamed or thought it would be a single.”
Oslin won the song’s sole composer, the CMA Award for Song of the Year for song “80’s Ladies”, making history as the first woman to win the award.
She was also named Female Vocalist of the Year at the same ceremony. She’d go on to win a Grammy Award for her performance of “80’s Ladies,” and earned two more Grammys for “Hold Me,” which hit Number One in 1989. Her fourth and final chart-topper, “Come Next Monday,” arrived a year later.”
Oslin recorded with artists like Sissy Spacek cut “Lonely But Only for You” in 1983, Dottie West released “Where Is a Woman to Go” in 1984, and the Judds recorded “Old Pictures” in 1987 even as a solo artist.
Anne Murray, Dusty Springfield, and Dan Seals also interpreted Oslin’s material.
Oslin put an end to her regular touring in the 90s and has since been an actor and has been doing great.
She released her greatest hit album in 1993 titled: Songs From an Aging Sex Bomb. “We should have music for all of us,” she told the Nashville Scene in 2013. “Music isn’t just for a 20-year-old.”
