Searching for Sugar Man - The moving artist biography of Sixto Rodriguez

In 2013, Searching for Sugar Man was awarded the Oscar for best documentary film. The documentary is dedicated to the search by two fans for the allegedly deceased musician Sixto Rodriguez, who was once more celebrated than Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley during the apartheid movement in South Africa. The unbelievable thing about the story: the singer knew nothing of all this. He lived impoverished in his home town of Detroid and only found out about his fame in another part of the world at the age of 56. The incredible story resembles a fairy tale and promises to give viewers goosebumps!

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Beginnings of the music career

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez was born into a working-class family in the US state of Michigan on July 10, 1942. His parents are Mexican immigrants. After Rodriguez graduated from high school, he pursued his great passion, music. He earns his living through his performances.

At the end of the 1960s, the name Rodriguez was doing the rounds in Detroit's small music bars. Not much was known about the singer, except that he could sing blues melodies with his incredibly charismatic voice. During his performances, he had a habit of turning his back on the audience. This made him an enigmatic personality.

One day, he is discovered in his home city of Detroit by two music producers who attend one of his concerts. They are immediately impressed by Rodriguez's crystal-clear voice and his enigmatic appearance. They believe they have discovered a new folk singer in the best sense of the word. His first single, I'll Slip Away, was released shortly afterwards. In 1970, his first album entitled Cold Fact was released by Sussex Records, Clarence Avant's label. Despite positive reviews, it remained completely unsuccessful in his home town of Detroit. For this reason, Rodriguez decides to take a break from music and keeps his head above water financially with demolition jobs. At the time, however, he was unaware that bootleg copies of his album Cold Fact had accidentally ended up in South Africa. And have achieved such fame there that people rank him alongside world stars such as Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley.

Apartheid regime

In the 1970s, South Africa was characterized by apartheid. Rodriguez's lyrics spoke to many white South Africans at the time. Poverty, drugs, shattered hopes and dreams are the themes he addresses in his songs. They became the soundtrack of the anti-apartheid movement. The regime even scratched grooves on the records of the song Sugar Man to ban it.

In boycotted South Africa, little information is known about the artist himself at this time. However, rumors are circulating that he shot himself on stage after being booed by the audience. Nothing more is known about the person behind Sixto Rodriguez. Even Rodriguez himself had no idea at the time that he was being celebrated as a hero on another continent.

Searching for Sugar Man

In the late 1990s, two Rodriguez fans decide to get to the bottom of the artist's alleged death. Stephen Segerman and Craig Bartholomew Strydom set themselves the task of finding out more information about the singer. Initially, the search is unsuccessful. The few photos that exist of Sixto show him as an aloof man wearing sunglasses. The two men try to follow the trail of the mysterious singer by analyzing song lyrics and researching on the Internet. Two years pass before the two finally have their first success in their search. They manage to make contact with the co-producer of Rodriguez's albums and pepper him with questions about Sixto Rodriguez at a meeting. However, they only ask him the most important question at the end: Is it true that Rodriguez shot himself on stage? The answer comes as a complete surprise: that's nonsense. Rodriguez is still alive.

Finding Sugar Man

Segerman and Strydom are finally rewarded for their investigative efforts. One of Rodriguez's daughters makes herself known on a website dedicated to the search for Rodriguez. She establishes contact between Segerman and Strydom and Rodriguez. A telephone call follows in which the two inform him about the success of his music in South Africa. Rodriguez himself only learns of his popularity in 1996.

But Sixto Rodriguez, whom the two men finally track down and meet in person shortly afterwards, is surprisingly different. He still lives a modest life as a construction worker in his home town of Detroit. Sixto Rodriguez's life takes a dramatic U-turn. The then 56-year-old is persuaded to travel to South Africa with his daughters to give a series of concerts there. His fans can't believe their eyes when the "real" Rodriguez takes to the stage. Minutes of standing ovations and cheers without having played a single note.

Despite six sold-out concerts, Rodriguez returns to Detroid shortly afterwards and continues his modest lifestyle there. The excitement does not seem to affect him. The artist continues to rest within himself, speaks very little and thus creates a shy impression.

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Film adaptation

The story does not end here. Swedish director Malik Bendjelloul decides to capture the incredible story of Sixto Rodriguez in a documentary. His original plan was to package the story in a ten-minute film. The director is known for ten-minute films. In the end, however, nothing came of it. He invested a whole four years in the project. In the first year, he received funding in the form of a grant, after which he was completely on his own. That's why the film is always on shaky ground. It is the power of the story that keeps Malik Bendjelloul from throwing in the towel. Bendjelloul takes the editing of the original footage and the musical design into his own hands and supplements missing scenes with his own animations. The result is Searching for Sugar Man—a documentary that moves us to tears and is awarded with an Oscar in 2013.

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