Last Updated on 08/12/2023 by てんしょく飯
American singer Sixto Rodriguez has died at the age of 81.
His song “Sugar Man,” from his first album, exploded in South Africa with enthusiastic support as a symbolic song of the anti-apartheid struggle.
In 2012, Sixto won an Academy Award for “Searching for Sugar Man,” a documentary film about his life and career, and was reviving his music career. However, he passed away on August 8, one month after his birthday in July.
Sixto’s official website issued the following statement. It is with great sadness that we at Sugarman.org announce the passing of Sixto Rodriguez today.
Sixto, better known as Rodriguez, was signed to the Sussex label founded by former Motown Records chairman Clarence Avant in the 1970s and released two albums in his hometown of Detroit, “Cold Facts” in 1970 and “Coming From Reality” in 1971 The albums were not met with success, and he disappeared from the music business. A few years later, however, “Sugar Man,” a song from his first album, exploded in South Africa with enthusiastic support as a symbolic song of the anti-apartheid struggle.
The documentary film, which won Best Documentary Feature Film at the 85th Academy Awards in 2013, follows two of Rodriguez’s popular South African fans as they try to find Rodriguez, who has been off the radar for decades since touring in the country in the 1970s, They found Rodriguez himself, who had become a manual laborer in Detroit.
Following the release of the film, two of Rodriguez’s same albums reached the U.S. charts. The soundtrack also charted in the U.S., putting Rodriguez back in the limelight as a musician.
Rodriguez told the Detroit News, “It’s a great odyssey. It’s been a great odyssey. All these years I thought I was a musician, and then reality set in.”
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