Debra Byrd

Person · Female

Debra Byrd

From
Cleveland, United States
Active
1951–2024
Releases
1

About

Debra Byrd (July 19, 1951 – March 5, 2024) was an American vocalist who worked with Bob Dylan, with Barry Manilow as part of his backup group from 1974 to 1979, and appeared on Broadway. She later served as the head vocal coach for American Idol and Canadian Idol, also singing backup for the contestants. Byrd helped with vocals on the Hub Television Series "Majors and Minors".

Read more

In her later years, she served as vocal coach for ten seasons of American Idol, as well as the short-lived American Juniors, and all six seasons of Canadian Idol. In late 2006 she helped judge Military Idol, a singing competition where all contestants are members of the U.S. Army.
Byrd died on March 5, 2024, at the age of 72.

From Debra Byrd on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Member of

Discography

Singles 1

Links

Vocal supporting musician

Identifiers

ISNI
0000000042914530

Data from MusicBrainz, saved 11 Nov 2026. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, covers from the Cover Art Archive and Apple Music.