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ABOUT DAVID BOWIE
David Bowie (1947-2016) revolutionised popular music and culture through five decades of fearless experimentation and reinvention.
Between the late 1960s and mid-1970s, Bowie pioneered multi-media performance art while recording groundbreaking albums including Space Oddity (1969), The Man Who Sold The World (1970), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane (1973), Diamond Dogs (1974), Young Americans (1975), and Station to Station (1976). His single "Fame" from Young Americans became his first US No. 1 hit.
In 1976, Bowie relocated to Berlin, where he collaborated with Brian Eno and Tony Visconti on the influential "Berlin Trilogy": Low (1977), “Heroes" (1977), and Lodger (1979). In 1979 and 1980, he made his Broadway debut in The Elephant Man and released Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) with Visconti, followed by the Nile Rodgers-produced Let's Dance (1983).
Throughout the mid-1980s and early 1990s, Bowie formed the band Tin Machine, collaborated with dance company La La La Human Steps, and composed music for Hanif Kureishi's The Buddha of Suburbia (1993). In 1992, he created Jump, one of rock's first CD-ROMs (Enhanced CD). Reuniting with Eno in 1995, he produced the experimental Outside, followed by Earthling (1997) and 'hours...' (1999). That same year, he was honoured as Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
In 2002, Bowie collaborated again with Tony Visconti on Heathen, performing the album in full alongside the seminal Low during European and American tours. Reality followed in 2003, launched with the world's largest interactive live-by-satellite event, followed by the critically acclaimed "A Reality Tour."
Bowie's film credits include iconic roles in Nic Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Nagisa Oshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Tony Scott's The Hunger(1983), and Christopher Nolan's The Prestige (2006).
In May 2007, he curated the inaugural 10-day High Line Festival in New York. The following month, he received the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award for pioneering the intersection of art and technology. Later that year, he starred as himself in an acclaimed episode of Ricky Gervais's HBO series Extras.
In 2012, a plaque was erected on Heddon Street, London, the site of the Ziggy Stardust album cover, commemorating his extraordinary influence. That same year following year, the Victoria and Albert Museum received unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive for a groundbreaking exhibition that broke attendance records in London, the US, Berlin, and Paris.
On January 8, 2013, Bowie surprised the world by releasing "Where Are We Now?" and announcing The Next Day, his 30th studio album and first in 10 years. The album received universal critical acclaim. In 2014, the compilation Nothing Has Changed celebrated his 50th year in music, followed by the experimental "Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)" with the Maria Schneider Orchestra and "Tis a Pity She Was a Whore."
Spring 2015 brought Lazarus, an off-Broadway production co-created with playwright Enda Walsh and directed by Ivo van Hove, which later transferred to London's Kings Cross Theatre.
★ (Blackstar), Bowie's 28th studio album, was released on his 69th birthday, January 8, 2016. Co-produced with Visconti and featuring saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his quartet, ★ received overwhelming critical acclaim, among the best reviews of Bowie's entire career. It became his first album to reach No. 1 in the US, topped charts in over 20 countries, and later won five Grammy Awards.
On January 10, 2016, David Bowie died peacefully, surrounded by his family, after an 18-month battle with cancer. His body of work, multi-generational influence, and legacy of fearless innovation and endless reinvention continue to inspire artists and audiences worldwide.
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