Christopher Ciccone, artist and Madonna’s brother, dies at age 63 | Music

Christopher Ciccone, a multihyphenate artist, dancer, designer and younger brother of Madonna, has died aged 63.

Ciccone died Friday in Michigan, his representative Brad Taylor told the Associated Press Sunday. He had cancer.

Madonna paid tribute to her brother in an Instagram post, describing him as “the closest human to me for so long”.

“Its hard to explain our bond,” she wrote. “But it grew out of an understanding that we were different and society was going to give us a hard time for not following the status quo. We took each other‘s hands and we danced through the madness of our childhood. In fact dance was a kind of superglue that held us together.”

“I admired him. He had impeccable taste. And a sharp tongue, which he sometimes used against me but I always forgave him,” she added.

She said had not spoken for a while but when Ciccone fell ill, “we found our way back to each other. I did my best to keep him alive as long as possible. He was in so much pain towards the end … I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore. There will never be anyone like him.”

A dancer since his youth, Ciccone was deeply intertwined with his sister’s rise in pop stardom in the 1980s, appearing in music videos like Lucky Star, art directing her Blond Ambition World Tour and serving as tour director for The Girlie Show tour. He also directed music videos for Dolly Parton and Tony Bennett.

In 2008, Ciccone released a bestselling autobiography called Life with My Sister Madonna in which he wrote about their strained relationship, her romantic entanglements as well as recollections from his time on tour with her. For two decades, he was by her side, choreographing, directing, dressing and helping his sister. He also interior designed her homes in New York, Miami and Los Angeles. He said that it was a bit like a marriage at times.

“It was a double-edged sword,” he told Good Morning America in 2008. “Nobody was chaining me down to make – to stay.”

The book, and his no-filter descriptions of the exploits of his sister’s famous circle, took its toll on some of his Hollywood friendships too. Several years later, in 2012, around the launch of a shoe collection he designed, he told the Standard that he and his sister were “on a perfectly personable level” and in contact.

“I don’t work for her, and it’s better this way,” he said.

In recent years Ciccone relocated to Michigan’s lower Peninsula to be closer to family. In 2016, Ciccone married Ray Thacker, a British actor, who was by his side when he died.

Madonna also lost her stepmother, Joan Clare Ciccone, to cancer just a few weeks ago, and her older brother Anthony Ciccone in early 2023.