Reuters reported the death of Legendary British rock star David Bowie this Sunday. The songwriter who launched the “ziggy-stardust” died of cancer on January 10, aged 69.

“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family after a courageous 18-month battle with cancer,” read a statement on Bowie’s Facebook page dated Sunday.

Fans across London who grew up listening to the works of the visionary rock star, laid flowers at a makeshift memorial to Bowie in the Brixton area where he was born and British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the singer as a genius.

Moreover, rock star Madonna said on Twitter: “Talented. Unique.Genius.Game Changer. The Man who Fell to Earth. Your Spirit Lives on Forever!”

Born David Jones in south London two years after World War Two came to an end; he took up the saxophone at 13 before changing his name to David Bowie and starting his own boy band two years later.

Bowie rose to fame in Britain in 1969 with “Space Oddity”, whose lyrics he said were inspired by watching Stanley Kubrick’s film “2001: A Space Odyssey” .

Later on in his career, Bowie evolved into a world-wide scale artist for scoring his first U.S. number one hit with “Fame”, and created a new image, the “Thin White Duke”, for his “Station to Station” album.

However, with all his glory and epitome, the rock star was infamous for his very explicit lifestyle that was crowded with narcotics, which basically predetermined onto where his health could be heading.

Bowie kept a low profile after undergoing emergency heart surgery in 2004. It was not widely known that he was fighting cancer.