Danielle Moore, the expressive and charismatic frontwoman of house and disco group Crazy P, has died suddenly aged 52, the band have announced.
Moore, who joined Crazy P as a vocalist in 2002, died on Friday 30 August. A cause of death has not been disclosed.
The group, who have toured with dance acts including Faithless and Róisín Murphy, shared the news with their fans on Instagram on Monday 2 September, explaining that they needed “time to process that this had happened”.
“We are devastated to announce the unbelievable and shocking news that our beautiful Danielle Moore has died in sudden and tragic circumstances,” the statement said.
“We cannot believe the news ourselves and we know it will be the same for all of you. She gave us so much and we love her so much. Our hearts are broken.”
The statement continued: “We need time to process that this has happened. Danielle lived a life driven by love, compassion, community and music. She lived the biggest of lives. We will miss her with all our hearts.”
Formed in 1995 at the University of Nottingham by Chris Todd and James Baron, Crazy P rose to prominence on the UK’s club circuit, with Moore joining seven years later along with bassist Tim Davies and Mav Kendricks on keys.
Together they released several albums including 2002’s The Wicked is Music, which notably starred Moore on its album cover in front of the Manchester Apollo.
She also starred on the cover art of their first 7-inch record, If Life Could Be This Way, which was released during lockdown in 2022.
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“The cover image shows me as a kid, sitting on our avenue wall with lads I hung out with,” she recalled. “I look cheeky and have a plaster on my knee, pretty standard. That photograph represents a lot of things to me, with one being my love of getting dirty.
“I’m so proud of the single, and I’m so proud of the image. It connects so many elements of my personal history together.”
Moore was raised in a working-class family outside of Manchester, where she would later be introduced to the city’s thriving club culture aged 18.
“I had my really seminal dancefloor moments there,” she said in an interview with Disco Pogo magazine. “I could dance how I wanted and feel so myself.”
She recalled one night where she was observing the only other woman on the dancefloor moving as enthusiastically as she was, only to realise upon approaching her that it was her reflection in the club’s mirror.
Moore said she had received “more than a few raised eyebrows” for not “settling down… but I know I’m so lucky with my life,” she said. “Would I swap those travels and memories and music for anything? Would I f***!”
For her, performing was “everything”, she was quoted as saying in her live agency bio. “When I’m performing, I feel like I’ve stepped into my alter ego and am able to take on any mood. It’s very empowering to become detached from my own slightly vulnerable self.”
In recent years, Moore had begun writing increasingly political lyrics in which she condemned self-serving politicians and celebrities, and campaigned instead for taxes on billionaires and repercussions for “the people who have ravaged this country”.
News of her death prompted an outpouring of tributes on social media.
“We can’t believe it,” DJ and producer Mr Scruff wrote. “We love Dani and we love you.”
“Dani was simply the best of us,” Ralph Lawson of the Leeds record label 2020 Vision said. “A truly wonderful human being. In a state of shock and finding it very hard to process or even write anything right now, but sending you all my utmost love and support.”