Celebrity Deaths

Celebrity deaths - 2016...

2016 HAS been a terrible year for celebrity deaths.

It’s true that these deaths pale into insignificance when compared to the very real loss of a loved one, or when thinking about humanitarian atrocities, both past and present. However, these celebrity deaths DO matter.

David Bowie provided the soundtrack to my youth (although if I’m being really honest, I can also remember doing the “Buckle” dance to Status Quo’s “Rockin’ all over the World” when I was 13). Yes, I really am that old… You will always find me singing along tunelessly to “Careless Whisper” and “Last Christmas” when they are being played on the radio. The same goes for “Purple Rain” and “Raspberry Beret.” 

I cried when I read Watership Down, I have a permanently soft spot for Terry Wogan’s twinkly eyes and bonhomie, and Victoria Wood’s deadpan delivery always raised a smile. I never wanted Princess Leia buns, but greatly admired Carrie Fisher’s honesty when she spoke about mental health. I will always be a little bit in love with Alan Rickman’s voice, and I lament that it has been irrevocably silenced. 
It’s true that I didn’t know any of these people (or any of the celebrities not included above), but that’s not the point. I connected with them through their music and lyrics, through their words, and through their character portrayals. A world without books, films, music and television would be a very bleak world. If this wasn’t the case, why would anyone ever pick up a book, go to the cinema, play music or switch on the television? It doesn’t matter that we have never met these people, and that the songs and the books and the films and the dramas are not real. The emotions they arouse in us at the time ARE real. They give us “moments” to treasure. Maybe they instil a sense of belonging to a troubled teen, or they inspire hope, or raise aspirations, or just make us want to dance. It doesn’t matter what these moments do – they exist because of these artists who are no longer with us. 

Talking of moments, I will never forget the cab ride home from the hospital on New Year’s Eve 1999, where my mother had just been admitted with the respiratory failure that would eventually lead to her death. First on the radio was The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” You know how it goes… “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…” and those lyrics really resonated with me. Following The Beatles came Prince’s “Party Like its 1999” when partying was the very last thing that I wanted to do. And yet, whenever I hear those songs now, I am taken right back to that cab ride home, and I don’t think that this is a bad thing. Those songs shared a moment with me, a connection. 
Happy, sad, nostalgic – these connections matter.

In real terms, these celebrity deaths will not impact majorly on our everyday lives. We will go about our business, battling our losses and celebrating our victories. However, these artists all gave us moments to treasure, and regretting their passing makes us human, not vacuous.