Amadou Bagayoko, one-half of the Malian musical duo Amadou & Mariam, has died at the age of 70.

Known for fusing Malian music with classic rock influences, Bagayoko is survived by Mariam Doumbia, his wife and musical partner, and his three children.

According to Mali’s Minister of Culture, Mamou Daffé, Bagayoko had been battling an undisclosed illness for some time. Daffé revealed on television that the musician passed away in Mali’s capital, Bamako, which doubled as Bagayoko’s birthplace.

Bagayoko was born in 1954 and became blind at 15, the result of a congenital cataract. This led him to study at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind, where he met Mariam Doumbia in 1976 while playing in the school’s Eclipse Orchestra. The two would eventually marry in the 1980s. Doumbia lost her own eyesight when she was 5 years old, and the duo was often labeled as “the blind couple from Mali.”

The duo steadily performed throughout the ’70s and ’80s before achieving increasing popularity in the ’90s and the aughts. 2004’s Dimanche à Bamako brought them wider global success, and 2008’s Welcome to Mali received a nomination for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Damon Albarn provided additional production on Welcome to Mali, and the duo would provide support to Albarn on tours for his two bands, Blur and Gorillaz.