Grammy Award-winning R&B soul singer D'Angelo has died at the age of 51. The musician, best known for hits including Brown Sugar and Untitled (How Does It Feel), passed away Tuesday morning in New York City after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, TMZ reported.
The singer is survived by two sons and a daughter. The mother of his eldest son, R&B star Angie Stone, died in a car accident at the age of 63 earlier this March. A representative for the artist released a statement to Daily Mail, which began: "It is with profound sadness and the heaviest of hearts that I confirm the passing of Michael D'Angelo Archer."
Icon Is Gone
"D'Angelo passed away earlier today, October 14, 2025, in New York City. He was 51 years old," the statement added. A representative said an official statement about the singer's death will be released in the coming days.
D'Angelo, whose real name was Michael Eugene Archer, was born on February 11, 1974, in Richmond, Virginia. He began playing piano as a child and performed in his grandfather's Pentecostal church. Growing up, he formed a group called Three of a Kind with his cousins, performing at local talent shows.
He made his first big impact on the music scene in 1994 by co-producing the R&B hit "U Will Know" by the group Black Men United.
In July 1995, D'Angelo released his first studio album, "Brown Sugar", which debuted at number six on the Billboard Top R&B Albums chart and stayed on the Billboard 200 for an impressive 65 weeks. The album produced several hit singles, including "Brown Sugar," "Cruisin'," and "Lady."
His follow-up album, "Voodoo", arrived in 2000 and debuted at number one on the U.S. Billboard 200. The record earned a Grammy for Best R&B Album, while its standout single, "Untitled (How Does It Feel)," won D'Angelo the Grammy for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 2001.
D'Angelo released his third and final album, "Black Messiah". Both the album and its lead single, "Really Love," earned him two more Grammy Awards in 2016.
A Troubled Life
Throughout his life, D'Angelo struggled with alcoholism and substance abuse, as well as the pressures of being labeled a sex symbol — a theme explored in the 2019 documentary "Devil's Pie," directed by Dutch filmmaker Carine Bijlsma.
His personal battles were also featured in his friend Questlove's 2025 documentary "Sly Lives!", about Sly and the Family Stone. In it, D'Angelo opened up about the pressures of fame and the sense of "guilt" he sometimes felt over his success.
"The origin of his personal story is literally being a chosen one —being a fifth or sixth or seventh wheel in a situation in which he was not even looking or asking for what he got, and yet he was chosen," Questlove, referring to D'Angelo, told Variety in Feb. "Yeah, guilt is probably the number one emotion."
Last year, Questlove revealed to Rolling Stone that D'Angelo had been working on his fourth studio album.
"He is about to take a radical 180 turn with this record," said Questlove. "It's going to throw people off the same way that Prince's Dirty Mind threw his R&B fanbase off. In the past few years, he's discovered Bowie and Zeppelin, the Beatles, [the Beach Boys' album] Pet Sounds, Captain Beefheart and Zappa."
"Nothing is official," Questlove added of the album. "We spoke the day after Bonnaroo and he said, 'I'm so happy.' I said, 'Now you just turn in your damn record. Just finish. Just turn it in. Let your children go already.'"
