Toronto marks Pride weekend start with plaque honouring transgender soul singer Jackie Shane

The soul singer who helped lay the groundwork for Toronto’s music scene has been memorialized outside of the former nightclub where she solidified her career in the ‘60s.

A Heritage Toronto plaque honouring the late Jackie Shane, a transgender musician originally from Nashville, Tenn. who called Toronto home, was unveiled Friday morning in a ceremony marking the start of Pride weekend in the city and officially proclaimed June 23 “Jackie Shane Day.”

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“She was someone who made the incredibly, incredibly brave decision to show the world exactly who she was in a time when the world didn’t even have the right words to describe her presence,” Marci Ien, minister for women and gender equality and youth, said at the site of the former Sapphire Tavern at Victoria and Richmond streets.

Shane, who once shared stages with Jimi Hendrix, Etta James, and Little Richard, moved to Toronto in 1959. She landed a residency at the Sapphire and released her biggest hit in 1962, “Any Other Way.”

That song, and other live recordings from her 1967 sessions at the downtown club, were turned into a boxset album in 2017 and nominated for best historical album at the Grammys two years later.

She died shortly after the nomination at the age of 78.

In 2022, Shane was featured in a Heritage Minute video, which showcased her contributions to "the Toronto sound" before she put the mic down suddenly in 1971 to care for her sick mother.

Shane’s niece Andrenee Majors Douglas travelled to Friday’s event from Tennessee and called the positive reception her aunt has received in the last few years “overwhelming.”

“Jackie was trying to be Jackie…In her own words, she felt that everyone should live, and live as they truly want to live,” Majors Douglas said.

Soul singer Jackie Shane is seen performing in this undated image. (Courtesy of the Estate of Jackie Shane)

“I want to thank Canada for accepting her and who she was. Being an African-American back during those times was difficult enough. But being a transgender [woman] doubly made it worse. She came here for peace and from what I understood, peace is what she got.”

Documentary filmmaker Amanda Burt launched a grassroots campaign that raised the necessary $10,000 to fund the plaque earlier this year, which successfully surpassed its fundraising goal in mere weeks.

Burt, who is also a producer on the forthcoming documentary, “Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story” (co-produced by Banger Films and the National Film Board of Canada in partnership with Bell Media) said Shane’s life was “remarkable and needed to be told.”

“The plaque, the proclamation, those are steps towards honouring her legacy and her music. But I truly hope that today is the beginning of us telling and listening to the stories of our neighbours,” Burt said at Friday’s event, before playing a recording of Shane reflecting on her time in the city.

“Where you were born, you have no control over. But what I call home, oh yeah, Toronto is my home base. And Canada is my home. I love Canada,” Shane said.

CTV News is a division of Bell Media 

From left to right: MP Marci Ien, MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam, Andrenee Majors Douglas, Amanda Burt, James Baley, and Coun. Chris Moise attend the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to transgender soul singer Jackie Shane in Toronto on June 23, 2023. (Heritage Toronto/Oscar Akamine)