Barack Obama mourns D’Angelo. The ex-president recalls the influence of the singer, who died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 51.
Barack Obama paid tribute to the late D’Angelo. “D’Angelo was one of a kind. A pioneer of neo-soul, he inspired an entire generation of singers and shaped today’s music,” he wrote on the X platform on October 15. “Michelle and I are thinking about his family and everyone who loved and admired him.”
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The former US president put the neo-soul great on his White House summer night playlist in 2015. He recommended the song “Nothing Even Matters” by D’Angelo and Lauryn Hill, which appeared on Hill’s album THE MISEDUCATION OF LAURYN HILL.
Donald Trump has not yet commented on the death of the soul artist.
D’Angelo died of pancreatic cancer
D’Angelo’s death on October 14, 2025 at the age of 51, which was due to pancreatic cancer, once again shined a spotlight on this particularly treacherous form of cancer. In recent years, several prominent figures in the United States have died of this cancer, including “Sex and the City” actor Willie Garson, TV personality Maria Menounos and “Dirty Dancing” star Patrick Swayze. Former Chief Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg also died in 2020 of complications from pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer (pancreatic carcinoma) is a malignant tumor that arises in the pancreas. It is often only recognized late because it causes hardly any symptoms in the early stages, which usually only appear in the advanced stages. According to the Cancer Information Service, around 20,200 people in Germany develop pancreatic cancer every year. The risk increases with increasing age.
Undergoing treatment for months before his death
According to his family, D’Angelo struggled with the disease for a long time. As People reported, the soul artist spent the last two weeks before his death in hospice and with his family after being treated in the hospital for months.
There were rumors of a new album in 2024
In 2024, D’Angelo’s long-time music colleague Raphael Saadiq told the “Rolling Stone Music New” podcast that D’Angelo was working on new music – and also alluded to an upcoming album. “He’s working on six pieces right now and seems really excited,” Saadiq said at the time. He confirmed that one of the new songs was based on an older track by Linwood Rose, a short-lived group that included D’Angelo, Saadiq and rapper Q-Tip.
A new album by D’Angelo remained unconfirmed until his death. His last record, BLACK MESSIAH, was released almost eleven years ago. In 2018, he contributed a song to the soundtrack of the video game “Red Dead Redemption 2” – a game that he himself highly appreciated. The last piece D’Angelo released before his death was “I Want You Forever,” a nearly ten-minute song from 2024, a collaboration with Jeymes Samuel and Jay-Z.