National Pride Month feature: Gay and Lesbian musical artists

[DRW50]

She looks like Constance Ford.

None of kd's country stuff is available on Youtube, but I just love some of that stuff, like Western Stars, Tears Don't Care Who Cry Them, Black Coffee. I'm sorry she moved away from that to, IMO, dull songs like Constant Craving.

[quartermainefan]

I love this performance by KD Lang

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[I Am A Swede]

One of the more famous LGBT artists in Sweden is Peter Jöback. He's well-known both as a pop artist and as one of Sweden's most popular musical stars. His big breakthrough came when he got the part of Robert in Benny Andersson's and Björn Ulvaeus' musical "Kristina from Duvemåla" based on the Emigrant Saga by Vilhelm Moberg. His big number "Guldet blev till sand" (rough translation: "The Gold Turned To Dust") became a huge hit. Here he sings it at the Swedish Grammy Awards for 1996, when the album version of the musical won the Grammy for Best Album.

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[DRW50]

Thanks for keeping us up to date on your country's artists.

[alphanguy74]

Oh my.... he's lovely! And he can really sing! I think the USA might be the only country that is a vast wasteland of talent in recent years. I love that song, too!

[I Am A Swede]

Alcazar (now dissolved) was a group with strong ties to the gay community. This was probably the most successful line-up, and both the guys, Magnus Carlsson (the one with the open jacket) and Andreas Lundstedt (the slightly smaller and darker-haired one ) are gay. They were even a couple in real life for a few years.

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The group, with a slightly altered line-up, gave their last performance at Stockholm's Gay Pride Festival last year.

[I Am A Swede]

I hope you don't think I'm hijacking your thread Alphanguy?

One of the more surprising gay/lesbian artists might be the former pin-up girl and sex symbol Samantha Fox. She was only 16 years old when she won a modelling contest and soon after that did her first topless appearance in the British newspaper The Sun. Since 1970 The Sun had a standing feature with a topless girl on page three. This had become very popular and several other tabloid papers had followed. Sam Fox became the most famous of the Page Three girls and won the Page Three Girl of the Year award for three consecutive years 1984-86.

In 1986 she turned her attention to music and got a smash hit all over the world with this song:

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"Touch Me" hit #3 in the UK, #4 in the US and #1 in 17 countries around the world. After a few more hits her career as a popstar was more or less over, though she has continued to release music on a semi-regular basis. She also wrote a song for the British girl group All Saints, but had to use a pseudonym since All Saints refused to record the song if Fox's real name was used.

After increasing rumours about her personal life she eventually came out publicly in 2003.

[alphanguy74]

Oh heck no... I love the contributions.. Samantha Fox? I had no idea!!! For tonight... I have the incomporable Sylvester. Fabulousness personified:

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[quartermainefan]

Ok since contributions are welcome, I will go back to the name I first mentioned, Johnny Ray.

Johnny Ray might be forgotten now but in 1952 he might have been the biggest musical act of the year thanks to this hit

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His over emotive singing was eaten up by young girls but he was arrested in 1951 for soliciting sex with men, and again in 1959. He became an alcoholic, eventually getting tuberculosis, cirrhosis and in 1990 died of liver failure. His unique singing style included throwing himself around, singing as if in pain to his overemotional songs and he was seen as a precurser to rock. Musicians never forgot him, and in the early 80s mega one hit wonder "Come On, Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners, it is none other than Johnny Ray as the cultural icon that kicks the song off

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Ray also joined elite company as serving as one of the cultural and historical benchmarks listed in Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start The Fire"

Harry Truman, Doris Day, Red China, Johnnie Ray,

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio,

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Studebaker, television

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe,

[DRW50]

He was also mentioned in that one hit wonder in the late 90's "Are you Johnny Ray...are you Fay Wray..."

[Bright Eyes]

I love that ridiculous tune.

[alphanguy74]

[alphanguy74]

Tonight it's one of my favorite German singers, Jurgen Marcus. Originally co-starring with Donna Summer in "Hair" in 1969-70, he started recording the same year, and had his biggest hit in 1972. Many referred to him as the German Donny Osmond because of his teeth, which were rumored to be false... so much so that he finally allowed a reporter to put his fingers in his mouth and pull on them on national TV to prove they were real. Known for his flamboyant stage gestures, and things like spinning on his butt, he still performs today as various event, pride festivals, etc:

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He rarely sang in English, but I found this nice Bacharach medley where he did:

[DRW50]

Fascinating. I'd never heard of him. I think I see Augustus Gloop's mother at around 1:26.

Whoever wrote that song must be a fan of "Is This the Way to Amarillo".

I'm glad he's had a long and successful career. That 1972 clip is a trip, and he's dressed like a Batman villain.

[alphanguy74]

The man joining him in the fist pumps at around 3:07 is Dieter Thomas Heck, host of ZDF Hitparade, he's basically Germany's version of Dick Clark. I'm glad that all this old pristine footage exists, unlike the BBC which wiped alot of old shows from the 60's and 70's, ZDF kept all their stuff, and currently repeat it on German television. Carl, funny you should mention "Is This The Way To Amarillo", Tony Christie, who sang that song, recorded four albums in the 90's produced by Jack White, the same man who produced all of Jurgen's hits, including the one above. Jurgen had a total of 14 chart hits in Germany from 1970 through 1981.