British musician Chris Rea, one of the most recognizable figures in European soft rock, has died at the age of 74, according to a family spokesperson.
He achieved this at the age of 19, a decisive step to begin his musical path. Throughout his career, he released 25 studio albums, sold more than 30 million copies worldwide, and maintained a constant presence on adult-oriented radio stations.
Born in Middlesbrough (Cleveland) in 1951 into an Italian family that ran an ice cream business, Rea worked there during his youth to save up and buy his first electric guitar.
His death marks the end of a chapter for a musician who made elegance and artistic coherence a form of permanence.
“He died peacefully in the hospital after a brief illness,” the official statement noted.
Rea, author of hits such as “It’s All Gone”, “Josephine”, “On the Beach”, “The Road to Hell”, and the modern Christmas staple “Driving Home for Christmas”, built a solid and personal career based on an elegant blend of blues, pop, soul, and melodic rock, with a deep voice and a marked care for arrangements.
“I would like to be like musicians such as Eric Clapton or Mark Knopfler, who keep their music above all else,” he declared in an interview with El País.
His greatest commercial success was concentrated in the late 1980s. The album “Dancing With Strangers” (1987) started a streak of six consecutive albums in the UK top ten, two of them at number one, confirming his popularity despite staying away from dominant pop fashions.
The band recorded a single single in 1974 and then was renamed The Beautiful Losers, in homage to Leonard Cohen's novel. In 1975, they were chosen “best new band” by the magazine Melody Maker, although the emergence of punk rock frustrated any immediate projection and left them off the radar.
International recognition came from the United States.
From the 1990s onwards, and with greater emphasis in the 2000s, his presence in the charts gradually decreased.
In 2016, he suffered a stroke and a year later collapsed on stage during a concert in Oxford, which marked the end of his regular performances.
In 1978, his song “Fool (If You Think It’s Over)” reached number 12 on the charts and earned him a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
Chris Rea had been married to his wife Joan for decades and had two daughters, Josephine and Julia.
At the time, Rea made his distance from stardom clear: “I try to reject that pressure.”
Shortly after, he joined Magdalene, a group that David Coverdale had passed through before becoming the vocalist for Deep Purple and later Whitesnake.
