D’Angelo, Grammy-award winning R&B singer, dies aged 51

Tributes have flooded in for the R&B and soul singer D’Angelo, who has died aged 51 after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

In a statement, his family wrote that the star, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, left behind a “legacy of extraordinarily moving music” and asked fans to celebrate “the gift of song that he has left for the world”.

The influential singer was known for pioneering neo-soul, a genre blending R&B with other types of music, including hip-hop and jazz.

His three albums won four Grammy Awards. The music video for his hit song Untitled (How Does It Feel) became notorious for its smouldering, single-shot performance, where he appeared to be performing naked.

“The shining star of our family has dimmed his light for us in this life,” his family said in a statement obtained by CBS News, the BBC’s US media partner.

Fellow musicians Beyoncé, Nile Rogers and Lauryn Hill were among those paying their respects.

Singer Beyoncé thanked D’Angelo for his music on her website. “You were the pioneer of neo-soul, and that changed and transformed rhythm and blues forever,” she wrote. “We will never forget you.”

Writing about his first meeting with D’Angelo, guitarist and producer Rogers recalled having encouraged the late star – who was then on the way up – to put out his material as it was “perfect”.

“About a year later I heard one of those songs on the radio. It was genius and it was exactly what he had played for me,” wrote Rogers. “I know… I still have the original cassette.”

Singer and rapper Hill shared a similarly lengthy and personal reflection on the life and work of D’Angelo, saying his “beauty and talent were not of this world”.

“You imaged a unity of strength and sensitivity in Black manhood to a generation that only saw itself as having to be one or the other,” she wrote.

Fellow rappers Doja Cat and Missy Elliot also paid their respects, as well as singers Jill Scott and Jennifer Hudson.

“A true voice of soul and inspiration to many brilliant artists of our generation and generations to come,” Doja Cat wrote on X.

“Rest Peacefully D’Angelo,” posted Elliot, who was becoming one of hip-hop’s biggest around the same time as the soul singer’s rise int he late 1990s.

Scott posted: “I never met D’Angelo but I love him, respect him, admire his gift.”

Hudson noted how “we lost a true original today”. “D’Angelo, your voice will live on forever. Rest well, King!!!”

Tyler the Creator said his “musical DNA” was shaped by D’Angelo – “We are so lucky to have been alive to enjoy his art,” he wrote.

D’Angelo began his career as a songwriter, and worked alongside big names in music like Lauryn Hill and The Roots.

He rose to fame in the 1990s with his debut album Brown Sugar. His song, Lady, from that album reached the number 10 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart in 1996.

That song earned him multiple Grammy nominations and secured his spot on the music scene.

The son of a Pentecostal minister, D’Angelo was born in Richmond, Virginia, and taught himself to play piano when he was just three years old.

Throughout his adolescence, he performed locally in groups including Three of a Kind, Michael Archer and Precise, and Intelligent, Deadly but Unique (I.D.U.).

When he was 18, he won the amateur talent competition at Harlem’s Apollo Theater for three consecutive weeks; and was quickly signed to a publishing deal with EMI.

He established himself as a commercial force with his 1995 debut album, also called Brown Sugar, and won two Grammys for the 2000 follow-up, Voodoo.

However, he subsequently struggled with alcoholism and nearly died in a car crash in 2005.

He returned to music in 2014 with Black Messiah – an album in the works for years – which he finished after watching the national unrest prompted by protests over the failure to convict police officers in the deaths of the unarmed black men Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

It went on to win the Grammy for best R&B album in February 2016.

Among those paying tribute was hip-hop legend DJ Premier, who produced D’Angelo’s song Devil’s Pie.

“Such a sad loss,” he wrote on social media. “We have so many great times. Gonna miss you so much. Sleep Peacefully D’ Love You KING.”

The Voodoo album which was released in 2000 topped the US charts and in its most recent list of the greatest albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine placed it at 28 – one place above The Beatles’ White Album.

D’Angelo had been working in the studio on what would have been his fourth album with Raphael Saadiq.