Legendary English singer and songwriter David Bowie died on Jan. 10 after an 18-month battle with cancer. He was 69.

Bowie's publicist Steve Martin confirmed the iconic musician's death on the morning of Jan. 11, The New York Times reported. "David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family," a post on Bowie's own Facebook page noted.

A member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame since 1996, Bowie sold an estimated 140 million albums throughout his career. He released more than two dozen studio albums and was twice honored with the prestigious Grammy award, first in 1985 in the Best Videoclip category and again in 2006 for his lifetime achievements.

Bowie's final album, "Blackstar," was released recently on Jan. 8, his birthday. The singer was due to be honored with a concert at Carnegie Hall on March 31 featuring the Roots, Cyndi Lauper and the Mountain Goats, The New York Times noted.

Bowie was born David Robert Jones in London on Jan. 8, 1947 to Margaret Mary Jones, a waitress, and Haywood Stenton Jones, a promotions officer for the children's charity Barnardo's. In the mid-1960s, Bowie adopted his stage name after the 19th-century American frontiersman Jim Bowie.

In 1970, he married Mary Angela Barnett. They had a son together, Duncan, and divorced 10 years later. In the final year and a half of his life, Bowie had been battling cancer, but had not made his illness public, the Daily Mail noted.

"I think people within the industry had heard rumours about cancer, we'd heard rumours about him not being well," singer-songwriter Midge Ure said on Britain's ITV network.

Fans and celebrities from around the world, meanwhile, bemoaned Bowie's death on social media.

"He never seemed of this earth. Now he's left it. He bent rules, gender, genres, and our minds. RIP David Bowie. One. Of. A. Kind," singer Josh Groban tweeted.

"But the key to the city is in the sun that pins the branches to the sky," actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt added, quoting Bowie's own lyrics.

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