British singer and songwriter Chris Rea has died aged 74, a spokesman for his family said.
Rea, the artist behind the holiday hit “Driving Home for Christmas,” has died after a brief illness.
The singer had his pancreas removed due to pancreatic cancer in 2001, while he also suffered a stroke in 2016.
The speaker said that he was surrounded by his family at the time of his demise.
A star of the 80’s, 90’s
After achieving success in the 1970s and 1980s, including a Grammy nomination for the song “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)”, he became one of the biggest solo artists in the UK just before the nineties, with two of his solo albums reaching the top of the charts in the UK.
“Driving Home for Christmas”, which was released in 1986, also featured in this year’s festive advert for British retail giant M&S.
Chris Rea was born in 1951 in the northern city of Middlesbrough, England, to an Italian mother and an English father.
Edited by: Dmytro Lyubenko