MADONNA has said goodbye to William Orbit, the Grammy-winning producer who helped steer her into the shimmering electronica sound of 1998’s Ray Of Light.

Orbit died aged 69. A statement shared on his social media said family and friends announced he “passed away at home on July 23”, adding he will be “greatly missed” by those whose lives he touched through his music.

Madonna marked his death with an Instagram post featuring video of her accepting a Grammy for Ray Of Light with Orbit beside her onstage. In the clip, she tells the audience the album wouldn’t have been possible without him.

In a long caption, she wrote: “Goodbye William Orbit – I had an epiphany when I met you and started working with you.” Madonna said their partnership made her realise “music did not have to fit into categories or genres”, and credited him with pushing her into new ways of singing and writing.

Calling him “my Ray of Light”, Madonna linked that period to her personal life too, writing that her daughter Lola was born around the same time and that she was “starting a new chapter”. She also remembered their studio sessions as “church like”, and named tracks she felt only Orbit could have inspired, including Drowned World and Swim.

Orbit’s credits stretch far beyond Madonna, with work alongside stars including Britney Spears, Pink, All Saints and Blur. But he’s often tied most closely to Madonna’s reinvention on Ray Of Light, which included hits Frozen and Nothing Really Matters and marked a clear shift from her earlier dance-pop and disco lanes.

Before Ray Of Light, the pair had worked on the singles Erotica and Justify My Love, and they later reunited for 1999’s Beautiful Stranger for the Austin Powers franchise. Madonna previously described Orbit as a “complete madman genius”, recalling how she’d leave him “alone in the laboratory” to build tracks before they shaped them into songs.