Singer Shemekia Copeland and guitarist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram are among this year's the top winners at the Blues Music Awards.

LOS ANGELES Bonnie Pointer, who in 1969 convinced three of her church-singing siblings to form the Pointer Sisters, which would become one of the biggest acts of the next two decades, died Monday. It is with great sadness that I have to announce to the fans of the Pointer Sisters that my sister, Bonnie died this morning, sister Anita Pointer said in a statement. The Pointer Sisters would never have happened had it not been for Bonnie," Anita Pointer said in her statement. She had always told me, mother, I want something for myself," Bonnie's mother Sarah Pointer told Ebony in 1974. In addition to Ruth and Anita, Bonnie Pointer is survived by her two older brothers, Aaron and Fritz.