July 2, 2012 11:26

Gotye takes to Twitter to deny reports of his death

News network had reported that the Australian singer had killed himself

Photo: Derek Bremner/NME

Gotye was forced to deny reports that he had committed suicide, after a rumour that he was dead.

Last night (July 1), false claims begin to circulate on Twitter that the 'Somebody That I Used To Know' singer that shot himself in the head, which made it onto CNN's iReport.

The news channel broadcast the following statement on its iReport programme, which is CNN's social news network: "At 4:32 AM EST, it was reported that Gotye had shot himself in the head with a 9mm handgun. He was pronounced dead at 4.45AM, and the investigation concluded that the cause of death was suicide.''

This led Gotye, whose real name is Wouter De Backer, to take to Twitter and deny he was dead, writing: "I'm not dead. #Pinkalbumtitles'."

His bandmate Tim Shiel then joked about the gaff, tweeting ''It saddens me to confirm the news of Gotye's passing - he suffered cardiac arrest while flying a unicorn over a double rainbow.'' Later, he tweeted: ''Just FYI I'm going to use 'It's what Wally would have wanted' to justify doing all kinds of weird s--- in the next couple of days.''

In a statement to NME, a CNN spokesperson wrote: "The source was actually one fraudulent member of over the one million members of CNN’s social network for news – CNN iReport…In this case, the moderators pulled the story down within minutes of its posting."

Gotye will play two UK shows later this year, playing gigs in London and Manchester in November. Gotye will first headline London's HMV Hammersmith Apollo on November 12 and then play Manchester's O2 Apollo on November 15.

You can watch the video for Gotye's 'Somebody That I Used To Know' by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.

Video: Gotye - 'Somebody That I Used To Know'

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