Lou Deprijck has died at the age of 77, the DH announced on Tuesday, citing the family of the Belgian singer and producer.
The Belgian artist had been suffering from health problems and had recently been staying in a Brussels hospital.
Deprijck is among the best-selling Belgian artists of all time, with some 20 million records sold since 1963.
He is known for having been the producer and real singer behind Plastic Bertrand’s 1978 hit Ça plane pour moi, which broke out of the French-language music scene to become a global hit.
The song was a top ten hit in the UK, the Netherlands, West Germany, Australia and New Zealand. It topped the charts in France and Switzerland, while in his home country, Belgium, the song made the eleventh spot.
The song was also at the centre of a legal dispute which was resolved in 2010. While Plastic Bertrand, real name Roger Jouret, toured the world performing the global hit, it was not Jouret who sang it, but his producer, Deprijck.
The single has sold over 900,000 copies around the world and is regarded as a "punk-new wave-pop classic."
