![]() Tragically Hip singer Gord Downie has terminal cancer ![]() The singer announced last year he had been diagnosed in December 2015 with terminal brain cancer. Statement - /Z6dHmr1xpM- The Tragically Hip October 18, 2017 “Gord knew this day was coming – his response was to spend this precious time as he always had – making music, making memories and expressing deep gratitude to his family and friends for a life well lived, often sealing it with a kiss … on the lips.” “Last night Gord quietly passed away with his beloved children and family close by,” the statement read. The statement was released via the band’s official Twitter account and posted on its website. The music industry has been full of enigmatic farewells lately: David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Gregg Allman.ĭownie's was full of courage, music and-despite a deadly disease-sheer life.Gord Downie, frontman of the Canadian rock band Tragically Hip, has died, his family said in a statement Wednesday. One fan described it as a "marathon of hope," and noted the spirit of generosity and transparency running through Downie's final performances with the band.īefore he died, Downie completed a final solo album, Introduce Yerself, which The New York Times describes as "a strikingly intimate record of an artist processing the shock of his own mortality." (It will be released late this month, just a year after Downie's fifth solo record, Secret Path.) (Ticket sales responded accordingly, with many being snatched up by scalpers.) It was a farewell tour because of the public disclosure of Downie's illness, fans knew it was likely to be the band's last. It was brave, unusual and defiant in the face of a devastating disease.Īfter releasing Man Machine Poem, the Hip embarked on a brief but remarkable 2016 tour through Canada, culminating in that emotional Ontario display. #cdnpoli #ripGord /flj2A5AS0dĭuring his final months, Downie chose to say goodbye in his own unique way-and he let fans bid the beloved band farewell, too. Here is the Prime Minister's emotional reaction to the death of Gord Downie. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted about his sorrow-and teared up during an emotional tribute. The cancer responded well to treatment-radiation therapy, chemotherapy-but the prognosis was terminal. Downie had learned of the disease in late 2015, after suffering a seizure. When he announced in May 2016 that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive and incurable form of brain cancer, it was cause for national mourning. That performance-the stadium, the scream-held particular emotional weight because fans knew it was likely to be the Hip's farewell: Downie was sick. 1 on the country's charts.Īnd Downie, for more than two decades, occupied some mysterious sliver at the heart of Canadian identity. The band sold more records in Canada than any other Canadian band. The Tragically Hip was always a distinctly Canadian phenomenon, "one of those enormous entities that cannot be understood outside its homeland," as the Canadian writer Chris Koentges put it. Related: David Bowie, Leonard Cohen and the art of the farewell albumĪmericans could be forgiven for not understanding. (An estimated one-third of the Canadian population-nearly 12 million people-reportedly watched the event from afar.) And millions of Canadians shared in the grief. It was an extraordinary display of emotion and grief, not what one typically expects to find at a stadium rock show. He closed his eyes and screamed into the microphone. Downie, the group's frontman, trembled and wailed and filled up with tears. It was a deep, full-body wail-then another, and then another-during the final notes of "Grace, Too," the 1994 hit by his band the Tragically Hip. On August 20, 2016, Gord Downie stood onstage at an indoor stadium in Kingston, Ontario, and let out a scream.
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