<figure id="attachment_3241507" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-3241507" style="width: 1600px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-3241507" src="https://media.freemalaysiatoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/a519a46e-chris-rea-1.jpg" alt="Chris Rea" width="1600" height="1000" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-3241507" class="wp-caption-text">Chris Rea battled serious health issues in his later years, including pancreatic cancer in the 1990s and early 2000s and a stroke in 2016. (EPA Images pic)</figcaption></figure>
LONDON: Chris Rea, an English singer-songwriter and guitarist best known for his festive hit &#8220;Driving Home For Christmas&#8221;, has died aged 74 following a short illness, his family said on Monday.
Hailing from Middlesbrough, a port town in northeast England, Rea&#8217;s song &#8220;Fool (If You Think It&#8217;s Over)&#8221; from his debut studio album in 1978 was his biggest chart hit, reaching the US billboard Hot 100 and earning him a Grammy nomination.
He released 25 studio albums and sold more than 40 million records worldwide in a career spanning five decades, cementing his reputation as one of Britain&#8217;s most prominent pop artists.
&#8220;Driving Home for Christmas,&#8221; written during a snowy journey when he was unemployed and released in 1986, became a seasonal staple in Britain, re-entering UK charts annually and featuring in festive advertising campaigns.
&#8220;My manager had just left me, I&#8217;d just been banned from driving, my now wife, Joan, she had to drive down to London, pick me up in the mini and take me home, and that&#8217;s when I wrote it,&#8221; Rea said in a video clip posted on Instagram last week.
The song was used this year in a Christmas-season ad campaign by retailer M&amp;S.
A motor-racing enthusiast, Rea took part in the 1993 British Touring Car Championship as a guest driver. Two of his album covers, &#8220;Auberge&#8221; in 1991 and &#8220;The Best of Chris Rea&#8221; in 1994, featured cars.
Rea battled serious health issues in later years, including pancreatic cancer in the 1990s and early 2000s, and a stroke in 2016, which left him with slurred speech and reduced movement in his arms and fingers. But he continued recording and touring, releasing his last album, &#8220;One Fine Day&#8221;, in 2019.
He is survived by his wife, who he met when they were both teenagers, and two daughters. His family said he died peacefully in hospital after a short illness, describing their loss as &#8220;immense&#8221;.

MatchPoint Times

Chris Rea, singer of ‘Driving Home for Christmas’, dies at 74

The English singer-songwriter released 25 studio albums and sold over 40 million records worldwide during a five-decade career.

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