AKAs

List of Famous Singers Who Are Members of Alpha Kappa Alpha

Throughout the years, women of Alpha Kappa Alpha have been trailblazers in the field of music.

To celebrate their success in the field, we at Watch The Yard have created a list of some but not all of the notable members of the sorority who have found fame and success in music.

Check out the list below:

Alicia Keys

Celebrated R&B singer and Grammy Award-winner Alicia Keys is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Ella Fitzgerald

Legendary jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald is an honorary member of the sorority.

Yolanda Adams

Honorary member of the sorority, Yolanda Adams is a famous gospel singer.

Etta Moten Barnett

Etta Moten Barnett was an American actress and contralto vocalist, who was identified with her signature role of “Bess” in Porgy and Bess. She was initiated into the Delta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha and was the first African-American woman invited to sing at the White House.

Maude Cuney-Hare

Pianist and writer Maude Cuney-Hare is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. A musicologist, she collected music from across the South and Caribbean in her study of folklore, and was the first to study Creole music. She is most remembered for her final work, Negro Musicians and Their Music (1936), which documents the development of African-American music

Hazel L. Harrison

Famed pianist Hazel L. Harrison is an honorary member of the sorority. She was the first fully American-trained musician to appear with a European orchestra.

Caterina Jaboro

Opera singer Caterina Jarboro was an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha and a well-known opera singer. She was the first female black opera singer to perform a leading role with an otherwise all-white company in America, twenty-two years before Marian Anderson’s début at the Metropolitan Opera.

Gladys Knight

Grammy Award-winning gospel singer and R&B artist Gladys Knight is an honorary member of the sorority.

Tiffany Monique

After passing through the Rho Kappa Omega Chapter of the sorority, Tiffany became a singer/ songwriter, member of The Mamas and vocalist for Beyoncé.

Jessie Norman

Famed opera singer Jessie Norman is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha. In 1984, she won the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo, the first of five Grammy Awards that she would collect during her career. Apart from several honorary doctorates and other awards, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and the National Medal of Arts, and was a member of the British Royal Academy of Music

Brandy Norwood