The Belgian musical landscape is in mourning. Arno, singer and monument of Belgian rock, died this Saturday April 23 at the age of 72, announced his agent Filip De Groote. He had been battling pancreatic cancer since the end of 2019. “He will be missed by all of us, his family, his friends and his musicians. He will always be with us thanks to the music that kept him alive until the end, ”said his manager in a press release relayed by several Belgian media.
It was solo that he revealed himself to a wider audience, thanks to songs such as his cover of seaside girls from another Belgian, Adamo. Among his greatest titles, we will also remember Damn, damn or even the My mother’s eyes. Arno had also held several roles in the cinema, in particular in the films Komma, Campsite Cosmos and So this is it.
The artist, sometimes compared to Alain Bashung or Tom Waits, of the same generation as him, had announced in February 2020 to suffer from pancreatic cancer. “At the beginning of November, my girlfriend told me that I had a yellow complexion. I went to my GP and he did a blood test. Shortly after, I received a phone call. I had to go to the hospital urgently. On the spot, they diagnosed me with pancreatic cancer at an early stage, ”he confided in the columns of the Eveningin 2020.