American R&B singer and Grammy winner D’Angelo died Tuesday at age 51 after losing his battle with cancer, his family said in a statement on social media.
“After a prolonged and courageous battle with cancer, we are heartbroken to announce that Michael D’Angelo Archer, known to his fans around the world as D’Angelo, has been called home and part of this life today,” reads a statement on Instagram, in which they express pride in the legacy “of extraordinary music” left by the artist, who suffered from pancreatic cancer.
His family refers to D’Angelo, recognized for his husky but smooth voice and Virginia native, as “shining star of our family.”
Although the family does not specify, according to media reports, D’Angelo died in New York. “He was in palliative care for two weeks, but had been in the hospital for months,” according to People magazine, which cites a source.
Earlier this year, the performer celebrated three decades of the studio album with which he debuted in 1995, ‘Brown Sugar’, a platinum album that included hits such as “Lady”, the title track of this project, which earned him several Grammy nominations.
The performer and songwriter, who as a child played piano in a church with his father, a Pentecostal minister, was known for combining the rawness of hip-hop, emphatic soul and gospel-rooted emotion into a sound that helped spearhead the neo-soul movement of the 1990s.
At the beginning of his career, he won the well-known Amateur Night contest at the famous Apollo Theater in New York, where he also started the career of many other famous African-Americans and with the money he won, he bought a tape recorder and began to write the songs of his successful ‘Brown Sugar’.
D’Angelo and his history in music
In 2000 he won a Grammy with the single ‘Untitled (How it Feel)’, whose minimalist, shirtless video became a cultural reference point and sparked conversations around art, sexuality and vulnerability in black male representation, media reports note.
His third album didn’t arrive until 2014, ‘Black Messiah’, which was also another hit, taking the number one spot on the Billboard charts and considered one of the best R&B/Hip-Hop albums in the U.S., People underlines.
This song won him the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and propelled his second album “Voodoo” to the top of the Billboard 200 and won him the Grammy for Best R&B Album.
Throughout her career, collaborations with artists such as rapper Lauryn Hill on the ballad “Nothing Even Matter” for the American singer and songwriter’s first solo album in August 1998 stood out.
He also contributed to the 1996 alternative rap group ‘The Roots’ album ‘Illadelph Halflife’ and was part of the supergroup Black Men United, which produced a song: ‘U Will Know’, which D’Angelo wrote and co-produced, for the film ‘Jason’s Lyric’ in 1994.
D’angelo has a daughter, Imani Archer, and a son, Michael Archer, known by the stage name Swayvo Twain.
The artist’s family asked for privacy in the difficult moment they are facing.
“We ask you to respect our privacy during this difficult time, but we invite you all to join us in mourning his passing and, at the same time, to celebrate the gift of the song he left for the world,” the statement further stated, reported Agencia EFE.
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