From the Wiki:
On 10 January 2016, two days after releasing the album
Blackstar on his 69th birthday, Bowie died from an unspecified form of cancer at his New York home. He had been diagnosed with the malignancy eighteen months earlier. Belgian theatre director
Ivo van Hove, who worked with the singer on his Off-broadway musical
Lazarus, explained that Bowie was unable to attend rehearsals due to progression of the disease. He noted that "Bowie was still writing on his deathbed, I saw a man fighting. He fought like a lion and kept working like a lion through it all." Bowie's producer Tony Visconti wrote:
He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way and he wanted to do it the best way. His death was no different from his life – a work of Art. He made
Blackstar for us, his parting gift. I knew for a year this was the way it would be. I wasn't, however, prepared for it.
He was an extraordinary man, full of love and life. He will always be with us. For now, it is appropriate to cry.