Yunupingu dies: Blind Aboriginal singer who performed for Queen 'wasted away' in itinerant camp

Dr G Yunupingu, a blind Aboriginal musician who sang for the Queen and was known for his angelic voice, has died after being found “wasted away” in an itinerant camp in northern Australia.

The reclusive singer had chart success in countries such as Australia, Britain and Germany despite avoiding media interviews and largely singing in his native Yolngu language.

In a sorry demonstration of the appalling rates of homelessness, poverty and substance abuse among Australia’s Aboriginal population, the 46-year-old was found last Wednesday by a lifelong friend in a state of dismal health at a beach camp in the city of Darwin.

"When I found him in this camp I was absolutely appalled at the state he was in because I'd known him since he was a teenager," Vaughan Williams, the friend, told ABC News.

"To see him in that state. He had wasted away. He was surrounded by drinkers. I work with a lot of people getting renal treatment and he was the worst I had ever seen."

The singer, whose face and full name do not appear in this report because of cultural sensitivities surrounding the dead, was taken to hospital, where he died on Tuesday.

He was blind from birth and had long suffered serious health problems after contracting Hepatitis B as a child, which left him with liver and kidney disease.

Born in an island off the north coast of Australia, Yunupingu first picked up a guitar at the age of six and learnt to play it upside down because he was left handed. He went on to sell more than a million and a half albums and performed at the Queen’s diamond jubilee celebrations in London as well as playing for the Pope and Barack Obama. When asked to perform for Mr Obama, he reportedly said: “Who?”.

Malcolm Turnbull, Australia’s prime minister, described Yunupingu – whose family have been offered a state funeral – as a "remarkable Australian sharing Yolngu language with the world through music".

But his final days were a reminder of the tragically high levels of disadvantage facing Aboriginal Australians.

Stan Grant, a prominent Aboriginal journalist, told The Telegraph that Yunupingu was “the voice of this country and this continent”.

“Aboriginal people in this country are often invisible,” he said.

“For our people, what he did – in singing in his language – made people see us, which is an interesting thing to say about a person who is blind.”