Nick Kamen, British Pop Star and Model, Dead at 59

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Nick Kamen, a British model turned pop hitmaker, has died, the BBC has confirmed. He was 59 years old.

A cause of death was not disclosed beyond the mention of "a long illness."

Born Ivor Neville Kamen in Essex in 1962, Nick was born into an artistic family: his brothers were Chester, a guitarist who’s played with Bryan Ferry, David Gilmour and Roger Waters; and Barry, a stylist and designer. Together, Barry and Nick formed the Buffalo Collective, a highly influential and pioneering group in European streetwear.

Nick Kamen on the cover of The Face, 1984 — Nick Kamen on the cover of *The Face*, 1984

Nick's 1984 appearance on the cover of The Face first earned him attention; a year later, he starred in a much-discussed British ad for Levi's, in which he stripped down to his boxers in a laundromat to wash his jeans. (The ad was so popular that its soundtrack - Marvin Gaye's '60s hit "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" - re-entered the U.K. Top 10.)

Nick's transition into singing was aided greatly thanks to his producer, Stephen Bray. Bray was also a drummer in the band Breakfast Club, a gig he inherited from another singer he would later collaborate with: Madonna. (Together, Madonna and Bray wrote “Angel,” “Into The Groove,” “True Blue” and “Express Yourself,” and others.)

"Wow, he's got a great face!" Madonna later remembered upon seeing Kamen for the first time. “I never knew he could sing. And the next thing I know, [Sire Records head] Seymour Stein calls me up and says, ‘Would you be interested in writing a song for his album?’ So he sent me a tape and the Levi’s commercial and a demo video that he had done, and I said, ‘Wow, this guy’s got everything.'”

Madonna also sang background vocals on the track she gave Kamen, "Each Time You Break My Heart." It became a Top 5 hit on both the U.K. charts and Billboard's dance survey. Later minor hits included a cover of the Four Tops' "Loving You is Sweeter Than Ever" and 1990's "I Promised Myself," which Kamen wrote himself. The song, a Top 10 throughout parts of Europe, was later covered by Dead or Alive and The A*Teens.