Legendary British rock star David Bowie, who framed hits such as “Ziggy Stardust” with daringly androgynous displays of sexuality and glittering costumes, has died aged 69 after a secret battle with cancer.
A chameleon and a visionary, Bowie straddled the worlds of hedonistic rock, fashion and drama for five decades, pushing the boundaries of music and his own sanity to produce some of the most innovative songs of his generation.
“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer,” read a statement on Bowie’s Facebook page dated Sunday. Bowie’s son, Duncan Jones, confirmed the death.
Mourners laid flowers and lit candles beside a memorial to Bowie in the Brixton area of south London where he was born, and tributes poured in from some of the biggest names in music, including the Rolling Stones, Madonna and rapper Kanye West.
In a music video accompanying Bowie’s new Blackstar album, which was released on his 69th birthday last Friday, the singer was shown in a hospital bed with bandages around his eyes.
He shot to fame in Britain in 1969 with “Space Oddity”, whose lyrics he said were inspired by watching Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey” while stoned.
But it was Bowie’s 1972 portrayal of a doomed bisexual rock envoy from space, Ziggy Stardust, that propelled him to global stardom. Bowie and Ziggy, wearing outrageous costumes, makeup and bright orange hair, took the rock world by storm.
The same year, Bowie told the Melody Maker newspaper in 1972 that he was gay, a step that helped pioneer sexual openness in Britain, which had only decriminalised homosexuality in 1967. He told Playboy four years later he was bisexual, but in the 1980s he told Rolling Stone magazine that he was actually “always a closeted heterosexual”.
He scored his first US number one with “Fame” and created a new persona, the “Thin White Duke”, for his “Station to Station” album.
Bowie moved from the US to Switzerland and then to Berlin, to produce some of his least commercial and most ambitious music, including ““Low” and ““Heroes” in 1977.
In 1983 Bowie changed tack again, signing a multi-million-dollar five-album deal with EMI. The first, ““Let’s Dance”, returned him to chart success and almost paid off his advance.
He starred on Broadway in “The Elephant Man” at the start of the decade and appeared in an array of films including “Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence”, “The Snowman”, “Absolute Beginners” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Temptation of Christ”.
His love-life fascinated gossip columnists and his marriage to stunning Somali supermodel Iman in 1992 guaranteed headlines.
Bowie kept a low profile after undergoing emergency heart surgery in 2004. It was not widely known that he was fighting cancer.
