Chris Rea, the British singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for the perennial festive staple Driving Home for Christmas, has died aged 74, his family said. The Middlesbrough-born musician died in hospital on Monday following a short illness, according to a spokesperson for his family.

In a statement released on behalf of his wife and two children, his family said: “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Chris. He passed away peacefully in hospital earlier today following a short illness, surrounded by his family.”

Rea had faced significant health problems in later life. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and had his pancreas removed in 2001, ITV News reported, and he suffered a stroke in 2016.

Over a career that spanned five decades, Rea built a reputation as a distinctive writer of melodic rock and blues-inflected pop, with a gravelly voice and slide-guitar sound that became synonymous with late 1980s British radio. He released 25 studio albums and sold tens of millions of records worldwide, with a run of major commercial success that included chart-topping albums in the UK.

Rea’s breakthrough came with Fool (If You Think It’s Over), which was released in 1978 and earned a Grammy nomination, helping establish him internationally even as he continued to build his audience at home through relentless touring.

His biggest period of UK chart success followed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Albums including The Road to Hell and Auberge reached number one in the UK, while songs such as Let’s Dance and The Road to Hell became fixtures on playlists that blended rock with a rootsier, blues-driven feel.

Although Rea wrote and recorded a large catalogue, the track most closely tied to his public image became a song initially released as a B-side that later transformed into an annual Christmas-season event. Driving Home for Christmas was first issued in 1986, and a re-recorded version followed in 1988. In the decades since, it has returned to the charts repeatedly as streaming and seasonal airplay turned it into a modern standard. ITV News said the song peaked at number 10 on the UK official charts in 2022, and it again appeared in the 2025 Christmas chart positions.

Rea spoke publicly in recent years about the circumstances in which he wrote the song, describing a bleak and unsettled period in his life and career. In footage referenced by ITV from Mortimer and Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, Rea said: “I was on the dole when I wrote that. My manager had just left me. I’d just been banned from driving, right. My now wife, Joan, she had to drive down to London, picked me up in the Mini, and take me home, and that’s when I wrote it.”

Born in Middlesbrough in 1951 to an Italian father and an Irish mother, Rea did not follow the conventional pipeline of early pop stardom, taking up the guitar in his early twenties and playing in local groups before committing to a solo career.

His early label experience was marked by friction over image and identity. ITV News reported that his debut album, Whatever Happened To Benny Santini?, referenced the stage name his record label had wanted him to adopt. The album was released in 1978, the same year Fool (If You Think It’s Over) helped propel his career forward.

As his commercial peak receded, Rea increasingly leaned into blues, releasing records that foregrounded guitar work and genre tradition rather than pop radio structure. That shift, described by outlets including Reuters and The Guardian, reflected both musical preference and a desire to step away from the expectations that had accompanied his mainstream success.

Rea was also known for an intense enthusiasm for motor racing, a theme that repeatedly surfaced in his artwork and interviews. Reuters reported that he participated in the 1993 British Touring Car Championship and that cars appeared on album covers including Auberge and The Best of Chris Rea.

In later years, as illness limited his public appearances, his music remained a constant presence, particularly in the weeks leading up to Christmas, when Driving Home for Christmas again became a staple of radio rotations, shop playlists and family car journeys. Reuters noted that the song continued to reappear in the UK charts each year and highlighted its use in a 2025 Christmas campaign by retailer Marks & Spencer.

Rea’s final years were shaped by the after-effects of his earlier health crises, but he continued to release music. Reuters reported that his final album was One Fine Day, released in 2019.

Tributes from fellow musicians and fans began circulating after news of his death, with condolences often focused on the seasonal prominence of his best-known song and the distinctiveness of his voice and guitar style. The Guardian reported that he is survived by his wife Joan and daughters Josephine and Julia.