Grammy-winning R&B singer D’Angelo, recognised for his raspy yet smooth voice and for attracting mainstream attention with the shirtless Untitled (How Does It Feel) music video, has died aged 51.<\/p>\n
The singer, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, died on Tuesday, local time after a long struggle with cancer, his family said in a statement.<\/p>\n
They called him “a shining star of our family,” adding they are “eternally grateful for the legacy of extraordinarily moving music he leaves behind”.<\/p>\n
In his music, D’Angelo blended hip-hop grit, emphatic soul and gospel-rooted emotion into a sound that helped spearhead the neo-soul movement of the 1990s.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the Virginia native celebrated the 30th anniversary of his debut studio album Brown Sugar, a platinum-selling offering that produced signature hits like “Lady” and the title track.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
D’Angelo achieved huge success in the 1990s. (AP: Cheryl Gerber)<\/p>\n
The 1995 album earned him multiple Grammy nominations and cemented him as one of R&B’s most original new voices.<\/p>\n
D’Angelo’s sultry vocal style set him apart from his peers and the minimalist music video for his 2000 single Untitled (How Does It Feel) became a cultural touchstone, igniting conversations about artistry, sexuality and vulnerability.<\/p>\n
The song earned him a Grammy for best male R&B vocal performance and propelled his sophomore album, Voodoo, to the top of the Billboard 200 chart.<\/p>\n
It went on to win the Grammy for best R&B album.<\/p>\n
In a 2000 interview with the Associated Press, D’Angelo spoke candidly about the cost of chasing commercial success.<\/p>\n
“[Musicians] have gotten trapped into that mode of thinking marketable and commercial,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
D’Angelo sings in New York in 2000. (Reuters)<\/p>\n
Beyond his own catalogue, D’Angelo’s artistry shined in collaborations.<\/p>\n
He memorably paired with Lauryn Hill on the soulful ballad Nothing Even Matters and contributed to The Roots’ 1996 album Illadelph Halflife.<\/p>\n
Acclaim and absence<\/p>\n
Years before stepping back from public view, D’Angelo’s life and music were closely intertwined, during the ’90s, with Grammy-nominated R&B singer Angie Stone.<\/p>\n
The pair met while he was finishing Brown Sugar and Stone once described D’Angelo as her “musical soulmate”.<\/p>\n
They had a son together, Michael Archer Jr, who went on to become a musician known as Swayvo Twain.<\/p>\n
Stone died earlier this year in a car crash aged 63.<\/p>\n
D’Angelo also has a daughter, Imani Archer, who is also a musician.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Grammy-winner artist left the spotlight after his biggest success. (Reuters: Phil McCarten)<\/p>\n
After Voodoo D’Angelo’s withdrew from the spotlight for more than a decade, fuelling speculation about personal struggles and creative battles.<\/p>\n
His long-awaited return came in 2014 with Black Messiah, credited to D’Angelo and The Vanguard.<\/p>\n
The politically-charged album arrived amid nationwide protests and helped usher in a wave of activist music responding to police killings of black Americans.<\/p>\n
The album won him a Grammy for best R&B album, reaffirming his stature as a generational voice.<\/p>\n
Its stand-out single, Really Love, earned him another Grammy for best R&B song and earned a nomination for record of the year.<\/p>\n
In May D’Angelo withdrew from a headline slot at the 2025 Roots Picnic in Philadelphia due to “an unforeseen medical delay regarding surgery”.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grammy-winning R&B singer D’Angelo, recognised for his raspy yet smooth voice and for attracting mainstream attention with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":213593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,130982,447,130971,130976,130975,130972,134,130973,130980,130974,130981,130979,130977,130978],"class_list":{"0":"post-213592","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brown-stone","11":"tag-celebrities","12":"tag-dangelo","13":"tag-dangelo-biggest-hit","14":"tag-dangelo-voodoo","15":"tag-dangelo-dead","16":"tag-entertainment","17":"tag-how-did-dangelo-die","18":"tag-imani-archer","19":"tag-is-dangelo-dead","20":"tag-michael-eugene-archer","21":"tag-swayvo-twain","22":"tag-untitled-how-does-it-feel","23":"tag-untitled-how-does-it-feel-music-video"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/213593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}