US singer Jimmy Buffett dies at the age of 76

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• According to information on his social media channels, US singer Jimmy Buffett has died at the age of 76.
• Buffet, whose best-known hit is "Margaritaville" from 1977, mixed genres such as country, pop and rock with a Caribbean flair in his music.

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"He lived his life like a song until his last breath and will be immeasurably missed by so many," read a message posted on his social media accounts and website on Saturday night (local time). "Jimmy passed away peacefully on the night of September 1st, surrounded by his family, his friends, his music and his dogs." Buffet, whose best-known hit is "Margaritaville" from 1977, mixed genres such as country, pop and rock with a Caribbean flair in his music.

The entertainer was "a poet of paradise" and "an American music icon", said US President Joe Biden in a statement from the White House on Saturday. He and his wife Jill had gotten to know Buffett personally: "He was the same person off the stage as he was on it - full of goodwill and joy, using his talent to bring people together."

Details of the location, exact time of death and possible causes of Buffet's death were not initially known. The singer was born in the US state of Mississippi in 1946. After university, he went to Nashville to make it as a musician. But success only came later. "The Caribbean and the Gulf Coast were Buffett's muses, and none more so than Key West, Florida," wrote the New York Times on Saturday. "When I found Key West and the Caribbean, I wasn't really successful yet," the paper quoted from a 1989 interview, "but I found a lifestyle, and I knew that everything I did had to be compatible with my lifestyle."

With his tanned face, blond hair and ubiquitous smile, he embodied this image, according to the Washington Post. But Buffett also developed into a businessman. He built an empire that included restaurants, a hotel chain and clothing, wrote the New York Times. In 2023, Forbes estimated Buffett's fortune at one billion dollars. In addition to his music, he has also published books. His fans are known as "Parrot Heads".

Buffet is survived by his wife Jane Slagsvol Buffett, to whom he had been married since the late 1970s, and three children.