Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Culture

Remembering Sharon Jones With ‘8 Days (Of Hanukkah)’

Soul singer Sharon Jones, whose work with the band the Dap-Kings earned her a Grammy nomination in 2014, passed away on Friday. She had battled pancreatic cancer since 2013, a period chronicled by Barbara Kopple in the documentary “Miss Sharon Jones!”

Jones was known for her extraordinary energy as a performer, a quality that proved compelling as, with the Dap-Kings, she worked to reinvigorate the spirit of funk and soul music from its heyday in the 1960s and 70s. Remember her with their song “8 Days (of Hanukkah),” which was included on the band’s 2015 album “It’s a Holiday Soul Party.”

“8 days of Hanukkah,” Jones sings on the track, “every one of them glows with love.” For fans of all faiths, her music will carry that glow forward.

Talya Zax is the Forward’s culture fellow. Contact her at [email protected] or on Twitter, @TalyaZax

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.