English singer-songwriter, actor and musician David Bowie was born on 8th January 1947 in London as David Robert Jones and passed away on 10th January 2016. He was married and has 2 children.
David took his education at infants, junior and high schools. During his childhood as well as a teenager, he learnt to play the ukulele, piano and tea-chest bass, and also loved music and dancing. Growing up, he listened to his dad’s 45s collection which included tracks by Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Fats Domino, The Platters etc.
At the age 0f 14, his mum gifted him with a saxophone and he immediately began taking lessons. The following year, Bowie formed ‘The Konrads’ and told his parents that he wanted to become a popstar. Until 1969, David joined and left several bands due to unsuccessful hits, however, his career took a positive turn when he wrote the song ‘Space Oddity’ with which he managed to obtain a contract and his debut album was released. The track made it to the UK Top Five.
Until his death in 2016, Bowie had 91 albums spread between studio, compilation, video, live and soundtrack. After his demise, 18 more albums were released. Some of his most famous songs include ‘Ashes to Ashes’, ‘Under Pressure’ (sung with the group ‘Queen’), ‘Let’s Dance’, ‘China Girl’, ‘Dancing in the Street’ (sung in duet with Mick Jagger) and ‘Absolute Beginners’. The majority of these hits were issued in the 80s.
During his career, David received 72 awards out of 186 nominations, plus numerous other honours. With global sales of more than 100 million records, David is considered as one of the best-selling artists ever.
Apart from music, David was also an actor and starred in around 30 movies, TV shows and stage productions. He was also an art collector and painter and even did writings of different media.
David was an avid philanthropist and supported numerous non-profit organisations regarding HIV/AIDS, human rights, children affected by poverty, hunger and war etc.
Bowie died from liver cancer on 10th January 2016, just 2 days after his 69th birthday, after being diagnosed 18 months earlier.
*Image: no infringement intended. Source: parade.com