NEW YORK, Aug 9 — Madonna has paid an emotional tribute to acclaimed producer William Orbit, saying the collaborator who helped transform her sound in the late 1990s “pressed a magic button” inside her.

Orbit, who worked with the Queen of Pop on her landmark 1998 album Ray of Light, died at his home on July 23 aged 69, his family announced, according to the BBC. No cause of death has been disclosed.

Remembering their creative partnership in an Instagram post yesterday, Madonna wrote: “You pressed a magic button inside of me and I fell into a galaxy of unrealised dreams. Your music gave me a magic carpet to fly on and I visited many places.”

The London-born producer, whose real name was William Wainwright, played a pivotal role in one of the most celebrated reinventions of Madonna’s career.

Their collaboration on Ray of Light marked a striking shift towards electronic, ambient and trip-hop influences while retaining the pop instincts that had made Madonna a global superstar.

The album became both a critical and commercial triumph and won three Grammy Awards.

Madonna said meeting Orbit marked a creative turning point.

“I had an epiphany when I met you and started working with you,” she wrote alongside footage of the pair accepting a Grammy, as well as clips from their music videos and studio work.

She credited Orbit with encouraging her to approach songwriting and singing differently, without worrying whether her words “made sense or not”.

“In many ways you were my Ray of Light — as was my daughter Lola who was born around this time,” Madonna wrote.

The singer recalled entering a new phase of her life when the pair began working together and described Orbit’s distinctive approach to making music.

“The studio was often church-like and I would sit in silence, waiting for your ideas to explode out of your keyboard or your guitar and then I would run with them,” she wrote. “I miss those days.”

Orbit later worked with Madonna on her 2000 album Music and returned to produce several tracks for her 2012 record MDNA.

Beyond his work with Madonna, the Grammy-winning producer built an extensive career with some of the biggest names in pop and rock, including Blur, U2, Pink, All Saints, Robbie Williams and Britney Spears.

“You were so otherworldly. So singular,” Madonna wrote.

She added that although she went on to work with numerous other producers, she never forgot Orbit or what she described as the “magical time” they spent together.

“I was so lucky to have known you and fallen down the rabbit hole with you.”