Chris Rea, Driving Home for Christmas and Road to Hell singer, dies at 74

Chris Rea, the musician behind the festive classic Driving Home for Christmas, has died at the age of 74.

The singer died in hospital on Monday after a short illness, a family spokesman said.

In the statement made on behalf of his wife and two children, it was said: “It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Chris.

“He passed away peacefully in hospital with his family by his side earlier today after a short illness.”

The blues-influenced star had a string of hits: Auberge, On the Beach, Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Let’s Dance and Road to Hell.

Paying tribute to X, Middlesborough FC said: “We are so sorry to learn of the passing of Teesside icon Chris Rea. Rest in peace Chris.”

Rea’s successful 1980s film, Driving Home for Christmas, tells the story of a tired traveler heading home in heavy traffic.

It was introduced to new audiences this year as the backdrop to the M&S Food Christmas advert.

in 2020 The singer’s social media platforms published a conversation He describes how Rea came to write the track between him and his friend and Middlesbrough local comedian Bob Mortimer.

Rea said he was in need of help at the time, his manager had just left him and he was banned from driving.

His then-girlfriend Joan (they met and married when they were both 16) had to pick him up from London in her minivan and drive him home.

This is what inspired the song, which was written in 1978, 10 years before its release as a single in 1988.

When asked what he thought when he heard the song, the singer joked about how it gave him “that cute little vacation in the Maldives.”

The song has since been covered by artists such as Engelbert Humperdinck and Stacey Solomon.

Rea was good friends with Mortimer and they recorded Let’s Dance for Middlesbrough Football Club’s FA Cup Final in 1997.

On Monday evening, Mortimer posted on

But along with her success, the singer-songwriter has also dealt with various health issues over the years.

He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1994, when he was just 33, and a few years later had his pancreas removed, meaning he developed type 1 diabetes. Later, he suffered a stroke in 2016.

In his statement to Saga magazine last year, the star said that he never forgot his roots.: “I’ve always had a difficult relationship with fame, even before my first illness.

“None of my heroes were rock stars. I once came to Hollywood for the Grammy Awards and thought I’d run into important people like Ry Cooder or Randy Newman. But I was surrounded by pop stars.”

He added: “The celebrity thing has gone completely wrong in the sense that everyone is trying to one-up each other. They’re not putting in the work.”

In the same interview, he said about his wife: “Our golden moment is when we fight every morning about whose turn it is to make coffee.

“Then we have big cups of fresh coffee, BBC Breakfast news or Sky and we look out the window at the countryside for an hour and we’re still 16. We’re lucky to still have that feeling.”

Rea was born in Middlesbrough in 1951 to an Italian father and Irish mother and had six siblings. He started his working life by helping his family’s ice cream business.

“Being an Irish Italian in a cafe in Middlesbrough – I started my life as a foreigner,” he later said.

After finding the guitar, he started playing in various bands and released his first album, What Happened To Benny Santini? In 1978.

His commercial breakthrough came in the 1980s, when two of his studio albums – The Road To Hell (1989) and Auberge (1991) – reached number one in the UK.

In later years, while facing health problems, he returned to his blues roots.

He recovered from the stroke he had nine years ago and released his new album, Road Songs For Lovers, in 2017.

Her album was on the road at the end of that year but she was forced to cancel several shows after fainting mid-song while performing at the New Theater in Oxford.

Rea released a new album in October 2025, titled The Christmas Album, which includes a remaster of Driving Home For Christmas as well as other festive tracks.

Paying tribute to Rea following his death, journalist Tony Parsons described him as “the best man” and “hugely underrated songwriter”.

Television personality Lizzie Cundy, who appeared in the music video for the 2009 version of Driving Home For Christmas, said she was “very saddened” to hear of the musician’s death.

“I loved every minute of it and was honored to work with him and appear in his iconic music video,” he said. “He will always be an inspiration and a legend to me.”

Andy McDonald, the Labor MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, said he was “very saddened” to hear the news of Rea’s death.

In a post on

Rea and his wife, Joan, shared two daughters, Josephine and Julia. He relied on his family to help him cope with his declining health.

“For me, it’s about music and family. I’m just one of four people, that’s the way I am,” Rea once said. “I’m 25% of a unit. It’s always been that way and we like it that way. There’s music in between.”