Rumyana Vakarelska
On 11 January, David Bowie, the British singer and artist has passed away in New York, where he was seen last in December.
His iconic songs carried the same iconic meaning across the world, a repertoire I have danced to since the 1970s, also like himself wearing from today’s perspective a perplexing hair style.
His last album ‘Black Star’ along his musical Lazarus on Broadway, in New York City, is only the beginning of his public reappearances as Newsweek announced a whole series of new albums to start coming up from 2017 with music we already know, but also tracks we never heard.
In his farewell video – he went back dancing into a wardrobe, but he will be never sitting there in oblivion, as for Bowie this was not a choice.
One of his close collaborators said today on the BBC that he helped those who felt they were different, most young people of his time and any time, or alienated, so the sadness of those who knew him or his music as well is a very personal endeavour as choosing to like to dislike his music each time Bowie reappeared as a new artistic character becoming a social model soon after.
Strangely enough, when I was enjoying his music back in Bulgaria, he was living in West Berlin where he has written some of his most iconic music with which the generations in the 1970s and in the 1980s grew up. He moved to (West) Berlin in 1976. He found the man he was in Berlin, quite different from LA in the USA, where he lived before he came to Berlin after leaving the UK. His last years he spent in New York in Soho as pictured days before he passed away.
Apparently, in 1987 he had a concert in West Berlin when he greeted his fans from across the Wall, they greeted him back. To these people he dedicated his song Heroes. Back then, I did not know why we were following him, but I know that his well-recognisable style and appearance has affected us all. He did not like to appear like himself, which explains his artistic image transformations on the scene, his interest and ability in the arts, pantomime and fashion.
Living abroad for big parts of his life seems was partly his way being someone else and reinventing himself, but also staying himself. A Bulgarian musician, Atanass Russkov, experienced a similar connection confirming the impact of his work and life on the music industry internationally.
Bowie grew up in Brixton, a mixed and rough place in South London, where he attended a comprehensive high school, now known for its strong music direction.
Chris Hadfield from the NASA Apollo mission, the first man to walk on the Moon, remembered that the famous songs ‘Space Odyssey, and consequently ‘Top control to Major Tom, were dedicated to this new age of space and personal discovery. The latter together with ‘Dance’ were my own top favourites I will remember him by. The tributes to his work are meant to continue, at least until someone like him breaks a new ground.
