{"id":75213,"date":"2025-12-22T13:14:51","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/chris-rea-rock-and-blues-singer-songwriter-dies-aged-74-chris-rea\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T13:14:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:14:51","slug":"chris-rea-rock-and-blues-singer-songwriter-dies-aged-74-chris-rea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/chris-rea-rock-and-blues-singer-songwriter-dies-aged-74-chris-rea\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Rea, rock and blues singer-songwriter, dies aged 74 | Chris Rea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Chris Rea, the British singer-songwriter whose hits included Driving Home For Christmas, has died at the age of 74, a spokesperson for his family said.<\/p>\n

The statement said that he died \u201cpeacefully in hospital \u2026 following a short illness\u201d.<\/p>\n

Rea blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock on 25 studio albums, featuring hits including The Road to Hell, taken from a UK No 1 album of the same name; Driving Home for Christmas, a perennial seasonal favourite; and tracks such as On the Beach and Josephine that earned popularity in the Balearic dance scene. He sold more than 30m albums.<\/p>\n

He was born in 1951 in Middlesbrough<\/a> to an Italian father and Irish mother, and had six siblings. \u201cTo be Irish Italian in a coffee bar in Middlesbrough \u2013 I started my life as an outsider,\u201d he later said.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Chris Rea performs at Salle Pleyel in October 2017 in Paris, France. <\/span> Photograph: David Wolff\/Patrick\/Redferns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a young man he dabbled in music while working labouring jobs, including in his father\u2019s ice-cream factory, and considered being a journalist. He eventually joined a band aged 22, Magdalene, which had previously featured David Coverdale (later of Deep Purple). He then joined another band, the Beautiful Losers, but struck out solo when offered a record deal, releasing his debut single, So Much Love, in 1974.<\/p>\n

His first flush of success came in the US, where his 1978 song Fool (If You Think It\u2019s Over) reached No 12 and earned him a Grammy nomination for best new artist. He struggled to match that achievement for some years \u2013 likening industry machinations in this period to \u201ca big manure heap of bubbling stuff. I had no control over it, I didn\u2019t know what to do\u201d \u2013 though the 1985 album Water Sign was a hit across Europe and helped to turn his fortunes around.<\/p>\n

The late 1980s were his most commercially successful period: finally embraced in the UK despite often sitting outside the dominant trends in pop, 1987\u2019s Dancing With Strangers began a run of six UK top 10 albums, two of them reaching No 1.<\/p>\n

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