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Nick Kamen 1987: Madonna sang in the background
Photo:
Dave Hogan / Getty Images
In the mid-1980s, the jeans company Levi's caused a sensation with its retro advertising campaign.
Old soul hits from the sixties like "Wonderful World" by Sam Cooke or "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King returned to the pop charts.
For Marvin Gaye's "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," a young British model made an appearance in a Levi's commercial that made him world-famous - at least for a short time: Nick Kamen went into a laundromat in an advertisement and withdrew - under the gaze of the other people washing - except for the boxer shorts to wash his jeans.
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Nick Kamen promoting the album
Photo: Dave Hogan / Getty Images
Nick Kamen, born in Essex, England in 1962, had his breakthrough as a photo model when he was featured on the cover of "The Face" magazine in 1984 - with a ski hat and sunglasses and the headline "HOT".
The commercial for Levi's 501 jeans followed in 1985 - and indirectly made him a pop star.
Madonna had expressed interest in producing Nick Kamen's first music album, but because of the filming of the film "Who's That Girl" only found the time to record the backing vocals for a song she wrote with Stephen Bray.
"Each Time You Break My Heart" was released in November 1986 as Nick Kamen's debut single and became a top ten hit in numerous European countries, including Great Britain and Germany - supported by a music video made by Jean-Baptiste Mondino.
Nick Kamen's music career was particularly successful in Italy, where he had other chart successes with the soul cover version "Loving You is Sweeter than Ever" and "Tell Me".
He had a second Europe-wide hit in 1990 with the self-composed song "I Promised Myself".
In 2020, his musical career was accounted for with a six-CD box.
At this point, however, Nick Kamen had long since withdrawn from the public eye, having worked as a model in some of the noughties.
On Wednesday, the pop star Boy George, a long-time friend, made Kamen's death public via Instagram.
"RIP to the most beautiful and sweetest man," wrote the former Culture Club singer.
The BBC had the death confirmed by a friend of the family, but initially nothing was known about the cause of death.
Nick Kamen was 59 years old.
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