"Lazarus" | |
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Single by David Bowie | |
from the album Blackstar | |
Released | 17 December 2015 |
Recorded | 2015 |
Studio |
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Genre | |
Length |
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Label |
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Songwriter(s) | David Bowie |
Producer(s) |
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Blackstar track listing | |
7 tracks | |
Music video | |
"Lazarus" on YouTube |
"Lazarus" is a song by English rock musician David Bowie. Released on 17 December 2015 as a digital download, it was the second single from his twenty-sixth and final studio album, Blackstar (2016). It is Bowie's last single to be released during his lifetime. The single received its world premiere on BBC Radio 6 Music's Steve Lamacq on the day of its release as a single.[4] In addition to its release on Blackstar, the track is used in Bowie's off-Broadway musical of the same name.[5] The official music video, directed by Johan Renck, was released on 7 January 2016, three days before Bowie's death.
Bowie never performed the song live, but on 17 December 2015, Michael C. Hall appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, singing "Lazarus" to promote both the single's release and the musical running at New York Theatre Workshop starring Hall.[6]
"Lazarus" was Bowie's first top 40 hit single on the Billboard Hot 100 in more than 28 years, landing at number 40 in the week after his death.[7]
Billboard ranked "Lazarus" at number 40 on their "100 Best Pop Songs of 2016" list.[8] Pitchfork listed "Lazarus" on their ranking of the 100 best songs of 2016 at number 5.[9] In the annual The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop mass critics poll of the year's best in music in 2016, "Lazarus" was ranked at number 8.[10]