10 years without David Bowie: Album 'Blackstar' faced death without melodrama

This January 10th marks 10 years since the death of David Bowie , and the impact of Blackstar (2016) remains as profound as on the day of its release.

Released on January 8, 2016, the day Bowie turned 69, the album reached the public just two days before his death, caused by an 18-month battle with liver cancer, which the artist kept in absolute secrecy. Thus, Blackstar ceased to be merely an innovative record and became an artistic farewell act, planned with lucidity, intention, and courage.

During the creative process, Bowie already knew he was seriously ill. In private conversations and letters exchanged with close collaborators, he made it clear that he wanted to transform his last months into something creative. Longtime producer and collaborator Tony Visconti (his partner since the 1969 album 'Space Oddity') revealed after the artist's death that Blackstar was conceived as a "farewell gift," made so that Bowie could say goodbye on his own terms.

In a message posted on Facebook a day after Bowie's death, Tony Visconti said [via MNE ]: “He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and in the best way possible. His death was no different from his life – a work of art. He made 'Blackstar' for us, his farewell gift. I knew a year ago that it would be like this. But I wasn't prepared. He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to mourn.”

On the eve of recording his 26th solo album, in January 2015, David Bowie called producer Tony Visconti for a private conversation at Magic Shop Studios in New York, where he revealed for the first time the effects of treatment for liver cancer diagnosed months earlier. At 68 years old, the artist said he hoped to beat the disease, but admitted that he only had the strength to work a few hours a day in the studio. 

In an interview with The Guardian in October 2023, Tony Visconti recalled the period with emotion: “There were days when he couldn’t come. But when he sat down at the microphone, he sang with all his soul. I had never seen him happier.” The producer and friend also reported being “deeply shocked” when Bowie died just 48 hours after the album's release. “I cried a lot. It was like losing a best friend,” he admitted.

Lyrics and videos reinforce the idea of ​​a planned farewell

According to Tony Visconti, Bowie described the album as his "final work," emphasizing that every detail was part of a conscious plan.

The songs and videos on the album reinforce this interpretation. In "Lazarus," Bowie sings about leaving, observes his own body failing, and faces death without melodrama. There is also a biblical reference: Lazarus was a man resurrected by Jesus Christ after four days. The track would become a lament about mortality and legacy, but it was the images in its music video, directed by Johan Renck , that emphasized the message the artist wanted to convey.

In the music video, David Bowie is shown lying in a cold, tiled hospital room, wearing the same "button-eye" mask previously seen in the title track "Blackstar," an element widely interpreted as a reference to the mythological ritual of placing coins on the eyes of the dead to pay for passage to the afterlife. Throughout the video, Bowie recites the song's verses while clinging to the sheets in a gesture of fear and fragility, before levitating above the bed, a symbolic image that suggests a spiritual ascension and reinforces the interpretation of the video as a visual representation of farewell and transcendence. 

The video was recorded in November 2015, just two months before Bowie's death. In an interview with The Guardian , director Johan Renck recalled his conversation with Bowie: “Over Skype, he said, ‘I feel I need to tell you this. I’m very ill and I might not be able to […] I don’t even know if, when we go to shoot the video, you’ll need someone to replace me.’”

The title track, "Blackstar," functions as a conscious farewell ritual, in which David Bowie creates a fragmented narrative about death, transformation, and transcendence. The lyrics suggest that death does not represent an end, but a passage. Verses like "Something happened the day he died" indicate the separation between body and spirit. The line "I'm not a pop star. I'm a black star" consolidates a final identity, as well as characters and myths built throughout his career.

In the music video, also directed by Johan Renck, this idea materializes in strong symbols. For example, the dead astronaut may allude to the ending of Major Tom , and Bowie appears as a blind prophet, conducting a funeral ritual. The musical and visual transition throughout the 10-minute song reinforces the planned farewell. It alludes to Bowie burying his own personas and transforming finitude into art, suggesting that even in the face of death, his work would continue to exist beyond the body.

Ten years later, Blackstar stands as one of the few examples of an album that serves as an artistic epitaph. David Bowie bid farewell to his audience, leaving behind a legacy that transcends rock.

David Bowie was writing a secret project 

David Bowie was working on a secret project in the months before his death. The musical, set in the 18th century and titled The Spectator , had its notes found locked in his New York office and is now part of the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The material, never finalized and until then unknown even to people close to him, includes plot ideas, stories about gangs and historical figures, as well as post-it notes and a notebook dedicated to the London periodical The Spectator , which inspired the title and themes of the work.

The notes, shared exclusively with the BBC Bowie 's interest in the city's cultural scene and the comic journalism of the time.

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