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U.S. Folk-Rock Legend Sugar Man, a Star in South Africa, Dies 

Sixto Rodriguez, the legendary singer-songwriter has died at the age of 81. He passed away on August 8, 2023, after suffering a stroke.

Rodriguez began his music career in the 1960s, but his albums went unnoticed in the United States. However, he achieved legendary folk-rock super stardom status in South Africa, where mistaken rumours circulated that he had died. According to the BBC, Rodriguez was unaware of his popularity abroad, which partly stemmed from bootlegged copies of his album Cold Fact circulating in South Africa, where it had been adopted as an unofficial soundtrack to youth protests against apartheid.

In the late 1990s, two South African fans, Stephen 'Sugar' Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom, tracked him down and brought him to South Africa, where he was greeted as a hero. He went on to tour South Africa and other countries, and his music gained a new audience around the world.

Rodriguez's life story was told in the 2012 documentary "Searching for Sugar Man," which was a hit at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Oscar for Best Documentary the following year.

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  • 25 February 2013
    Searching for Sugar Man Wins Oscar
    Author:
    enewschannel
    Publisher:
    enewschannel
    Publication Date:

    A South African inspired-documentary has won big at the Oscars. "Searching for Sugarman" has scooped the award for best documentary feature. The British-Swedish prdocution explores the search for seventies singer, Rodriguez.

    Russell Grant, co-founder of the Bioscope Independent Cinema, has described the film "Searching for Sugarman" as a story that only could have happened in South Africa at a particular time in history. The film won best documentary feature at the

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Supplied

Searching for Sugar Man tells the story of musician, Sixto Rodríguez, who faded without a trace until his music was rediscovered in South Africa.

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