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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Will Jennings, Oscar-winning lyricist of My Heart Will Go On, dies aged 80

Will Jennings at the 37th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, at the Marriott Marquis, New York, in 2006.
Will Jennings at the 37th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame induction ceremony, at the Marriott Marquis, New York, in 2006. Photograph: Frank Albertson/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

Will Jennings, the Oscar-winning US lyricist behind hit songs such as My Heart Will Go On, Tears in Heaven and Up Where We Belong, has died aged 80. His agent said Jennings died at home in Tyler, Texas, and did not give a cause of death.

Born Wilbur Jennings in 1944, he was raised in Tyler and initially went into academia, teaching at the University of Wisconsin. But in 1971 he headed to Nashville and became a lyricist in the city’s country music scene, earning his first country No 1 in 1975 with Feelins’ by Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn.

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