Five years without the living magic of David Bowie

Madrid. It has been 5 years this Sunday since the death of a musical icon who left as a testament an album, “Blackstar”, recognized by critics and the public as one of the best in history. Something that few stars can brag about, but that’s only available to characters as charismatic as David Bowie.

The legendary British musician, also known as “The White Duke”, pioneer of “glam rock” and a reference to legions of artists, died on January 10, 2016 at the age of 69, two days after his birthday, in New York. of liver cancer from which he suffered for 18 months.

The news of his death shocked thousands of people since three days before he released his last album, “Blackstar”.

“Blackstar” was his twenty-fifth studio album, which in retrospect contains what scientists say appear to be references to his own death. An omen or the last evil of the artist who knows his fate?

Bowie took the answer to his grave, but the lyrics to the album’s lead single, “Lazarus”, leave no doubt: “Look up, I’m in Heaven, I’ve got scars that can’t be seen, I’ve got drama, it can’t be stolen, everyone knows me now.”

In addition, the music video for this song, about four minutes long, shows a pale, blindfolded Bowie floating in a hospital bed.

With only seven songs and about 45 minutes long, the posthumous album is the only work that does not have a picture of the musician on the cover. Instead, a black star appears, which, when placed in sunlight, turns into a field of bright stars, and when placed under UV radiation, it lights up as if it were a galaxy with blue stars.

Shortly after its release, the album was met with good reviews from both the music press and the public, reaching number one on the charts in many countries.

The album, which sold 146,000 copies in its first week in the UK and more than 181,000 in the US, reached # 1 on the iTunes download list in 25 countries and became Bowie’s first album. to reach the top position on the US Billboard chart.

But fame had cheered David Bowie on for more than four decades earlier., in 1972, when he released his fifth studio album “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars”, full of mysterious and exciting lyrics, and accompanied by his image, as spectacular as it is ambiguous.

His greatest hits, turned into music classics and cult references, include titles such as’ Let’s Dance ‘,’ Heroes’, ‘Under Pressure’, ‘Rebel, Rebel’, ‘Life on Mars’,’ Suffragette City ‘or’ Space Oddity ”, and this earned him the Ivor Novello prize for his originality.

Bowie had an innate artistic vocation that led him to seduce painting, design and writing and to alternate music with film.

Beyond the triumph of the youth film “Labyrinth” (Jim Henson, 1986), in which he shared a cast with a newcomer Jennifer Connellythe British artist also took part in “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988) from Martin Scorsese, where he played Pontius Pilate.

“The Man Who Come From The Stars” (1976) by Nicolas Roeg, “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” (1983) from Japanese Nagisa Ôshima, is set in the Second World War and with music by the famous composer Ryuichi Sakamoto or the very popular one in the horror genre “El ansia” (1983), by Tony Scottare also mentioned on your CV.

He also acted in the role of Nikola Tesla, With Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman on the tape of Christopher Nolan, “The final trick” (2006), based on the epic novel by Christopher Priest it is about the rivalry of two magicians from the early twentieth century. All a paradox for the well-considered magician of pop music from the decades of the eighties and nineties of the same century.

Five years after his death, David Bowie’s magic lives on among his fans. A charm earned by its work. Since 2002 he has been on the list of the 100 most important Britons in history and in 2004 in the magazine Rolling Stone, and also placed him among the 100 most important artists of all time and on the list of the best singers.