The China Mail - Sixties icon Marianne Faithfull to be 'dearly missed' after death at 78

Over recent years, the British singer had battled with illness, including breast cancer and a severe bout of Covid.

Faithfull got her first break in 1964, after being discovered by Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham.

She shot to fame with her hit "As Tears Go By" written by the Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, who were introduced to her by Oldham.

It was followed by a string of successful singles, including "Come And Stay with Me", "This Little Bird and "Summer Nights".

She was long known for her tempestuous relationship with Jagger, and they moved in together when she was just 19, although she had already been briefly married and had a young son.

She also acted in films including "The Girl on a Motorcycle" and theatre productions.

"It is with deep sadness that we announce the death of the singer, songwriter and actress Marianne Faithfull," a statement sent to AFP said.

"Marianne passed away peacefully in London today, in the company of her loving family. She will be dearly missed."

Feted during her relationship with Jagger, Faithfull was to become addicted to cocaine in a career of ups and downs.

She enjoyed the highs of sudden fame and fortune, but also deep lows of drug addiction and homelessness, and emerged on the other side with tales to tell.

She was famously found wearing nothing but a fur rug in a highly publicised police drugs raid in 1967 that saw both Jagger and Richards convicted.

She left Jagger in May 1970 as her life spiralled out of control and ended up living rough for nearly two years on the streets of London.

But her album "Broken English", released in 1979, was to breathe new life into her career.

She also reinvented herself as a jazz and blues singer with 1987's critically acclaimed "Strange Weather".

- 'Yearning, melancholy' -

Over a long career with more than 20 albums to her name, including the landmark "Broken English", Faithfull was to attract a stream of younger artists keen to work with her, including PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker and Beck.

In 2006 she revealed that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer from which she recovered.

Ever the survivor, she faced one of her hardest trials with the pandemic when she suffered a brutal dose of Covid-19 in 2020, telling AFP it had left her struggling with the effects of long Covid.

Asked in 2021 if she would be able to sing again, she said by phone: "Darling, I don't know. I hope I can. I do singing practice once a week. A friend comes over and plays my lovely guitar and I practice.

"It's an awful thought," she added. "Whatever happens, I can't change it."

But far from being defeated, she had spent months completing an album which she had begun before the pandemic.

It features her reading in her distinctive, haunting voice some of her favourite poetry -- Byron, Shelley, Keats and other 19th century romantics -- with backing music from stars including Warren Ellis, Nick Cave and Brian Eno.

Writing after news of her death, Guardian pop critic Alexis Petridis described Faithfull's material as "lightweight".

But he said "something about Faithfull's performances injected a note of eeriness: her vocals were more yearning and melancholy than the songs needed them to be."

Z.Huang--ThChM