Tributes have been pouring in from around the world for British rock star David Bowie.
The singer, one of the most influential musicians of his era, died of cancer at the age of 69.
Oliver Jones reports.
Musicians, producers, actors, writers, fans, politicians and even the Vatican have paid tribute to rock legend David Bowie.
The British musician died surrounded by his family following an 18-month battle with cancer.
Tributes flowed in from popular music stars, including the Rolling Stones, Madonna, rapper Kanye West and Paul McCartney.
Madonna wrote on Twitter: "Talented. Unique. Genius. Game Changer. The Man who Fell to Earth. Your Spirit Lives on Forever!"
The Vatican released a statement saying: "Check ignition and may God's love be with you" - borrowing a verse from Bowie's first hit, "Space Oddity."
British Prime Minister David Cameron says Bowie's death is the loss of an immense British talent.
"Genius is an over-used word but I think musically, creatively, artistically David Bowie was a genius. For someone of my age he provided a lot of the soundtrack of our lives from the first time I heard 'Space Oddity' to watching our athletes appear in those wonderful Olympics to the strains of 'Heroes' - he was a master of reinvention and one of the things that's so incredible is almost all his reinventions were incredible successes and worked brilliantly."
Born David Jones in south London, Bowie shot to fame in the 1960s with the song Space Oddity and went on to dominate the worlds of music, art, fashion, and drama for five decades.
Speaking to the ABC, Australian music critic Molly Meldrum has recalled interviewing Bowie at the start of the singer's career.
"I just found him very charming. Very intelligent - far more than I could ever be. And just everything. And he just blossomed and grew and grew and grew you know. His style, his music, with his songs, as a producer, as an actor. He was just brilliant at everything."
In London, mourners laid flowers, lit candles and sang his greatest hits beside a mural to Bowie in the edgy Brixton district of south London where he was born.
Bowie fan Demetri says Bowie was an inspiration for generations of people and popular culture.
"What Bowie did for me was through such amazing music, it was a launchpad for all kinds of ideas in fashion, culture, even philosophical ideas if you want to go there. The influence he had on people to be themselves, to be their true selves and to express themselves creatively. I mean it's...you don't often actually get an artist that really engenders that with so many people, across so many generations."
Fans also gathered and laid flowers outside the apartment building in New York's trendy Soho district where Bowie had a home.
A floral arrangement with Bowie's name inscribed in gold was placed on his star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, where fan Anna Ommanney bid him goodbye.
"He was my hero from childhood, he was an amazing artist until the end, always changing, always evolving, always taking from other people and inspiring himself and others. Just amazing."
Meanwhile in Australia these Sydney residents have expressed the surprise of many at the news of his death, saying they were unaware of Bowie's illness.
"Oh, it's amazing, I am so shocked by it, it's really sad to see a such a great part, a talent that was such a dominant part growing up for me essentially and it's a real shock."
"It just instantly took me back to the eighties when Madonna and David Bowie and Spandau Ballet and those bands were around and I thought, wow, there's an end of an era, such a shame and really, really sad for history."
Bowie died just days after releasing his new album, Blackstar, which won early critical acclaim that's unlikely now to be modified.
In a music video accompanying the album, the singer was shown in a hospital bed with bandages around his eyes.
