Who's That Queer [Jón 'Jónsi' Þór Birgisson]

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Jón 'Jónsi' Þór Birgisson plays guitar and sings lead vocals for the Icelandic band Sigur Rós.


Sigur Rós are an Icelandic post-rock band with melodic, classical, experimental, and minimalist elements. The band is known for its ethereal sound and lead singer Jónsi’s falsetto voice. Obscure and highly artistic, the band have nonetheless developed a huge international following without either compromising their integrity or achieving mainstream commercial success. They could best be described as the Icelandic Radiohead.

Brigisson's trademark is playing an electric guitar with a cello bow and using distortion and reverberation to get an ethereal and ambient sound. His vocal style includes the frequent use of falsetto.

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Who's that Queer?

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Freddie Mercury was born Farrokh Bulsara on September 5, 1946 on the small island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. The electric frontman for the rock band Queen was of Indian nationality and his Parsi background has led many to remember Mercury as “Britain’s first Asian rock star."

In April 1970, Mercury joined with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile. Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it."


As a songwriter, Mercury composed many international hits including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", and "We Are the Champions". After the album Queen II was released, the world was conquered by the band’s outrageously fabulous performances and music.

Mercury is noted for his live performances, which were often delivered to stadium audiences around the world. He displayed a highly theatrical style that often evoked a great deal of participation from the crowd. David Bowie, who performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen said of Mercury, "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest...he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand."

Although he cultivated a very flamboyant stage personality, Mercury was a very shy and retiring man in person, particularly around people he didn't know well. He also granted very few interviews. Mercury once said of himself, "When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man."

By 1979, Mercury began to frequently visit gay bathhouses and clubs where he met many short-term partners. By 1985, he began a long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton. According to Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Easter of 1987. Around that time, Mercury claimed in an interview that he had tested negative for the virus. Despite the denials, the British press pursued the rampant rumors over the next few years fuelled by Mercury's increasingly gaunt appearance, Queen's absence from touring, and reports from former lovers to various tabloid journals.

On 22 November 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, the following announcement was made to the press on behalf of Mercury:

“Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors, and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue.”A little over 24 hours after issuing the statement, Mercury died on 24 November 1991 at the age of 45.

The following is a quote from Mercury, and if we can learn anything from his spectacular yet short existence, it is this: “The most important thing, darling, is to live a fabulous life. As long as it's fabulous I don't care how long I live.”

Who's that Queer?

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Call him what you will, “Ziggy Stardust”, “The Thin White Duke”, but if you haven’t heard of David Bowie, then you haven’t been listening to music for the past four decades. Born David Robert Hayward-Jones (yeah, I think Bowie works better too), Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his musical accomplishments throughout the 1970s. He has been influenced by a variety of musicians and musical styles, and is known for the intellectual depth of his work and distinctive voice.

David Bowie first caught the eye and ear of the public in the autumn of 1969, when the song "Space Oddity" reached the top five of the UK singles chart. After a three-year period of experimentation he re-emerged in 1972 during the glam rock era as the flamboyant, androgynous alter-ego Ziggy Stardust, spearheaded by the hit single "Starman" and the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. The relatively short-lived Ziggy persona epitomized a career often marked by musical innovation, reinvention and striking visual presentation.

In 1975, Bowie achieved his first major American crossover success with the number-one single "Fame", co-written with John Lennon, and the hit album Young Americans, which the singer identified as "plastic soul". The sound constituted a radical shift in style that initially alienated many of his UK devotees. He then confounded the expectations of both his record label and his American audiences by recording the minimalist album Low—the first of three collaborations with Brian Eno over the next two years. The so-called "Berlin Trilogy" albums all reached the UK Top Five.

In 1981, Bowie paired with Queen for the UK chart-topping single "Under Pressure", and reached a commercial peak in 1983 with the album Let's Dance, which yielded the hit singles "Let's Dance", "China Girl", and "Modern Love".

Bowie’s studio and performance success maintained momentum through the 1990’s. In 2003, Bowie was forced to take a break from the stage, after he suffered a minor heart attack as a result years of touring and heavy smoking. Despite his hiatus from the stage, Bowie contributed to several projects including the soundtrack for the film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which featured David Bowie songs performed in Portuguese by cast member Seu Jorge (who adapted the lyrics to make them relevant to the film's story). Bowie commented, "Had Seu Jorge not recorded my songs acoustically in Portuguese I would never have heard this new level of beauty which he has imbued them with."





In the past, Bowie’s sexuality has been a topic of discussion. He is currently married to Somalian-born Supermodel Iman Abdulmajid, but has openly talked about his bisexuality. In a 2002 interview with Blender Magazine; Bowie was posed with this question: "You once said that saying you were bisexual was 'the biggest mistake I ever made'. Do you still believe that?" His response:

“Interesting. [Long pause] I don’t think it was a mistake in Europe, but it was a lot tougher in America. I had no problem with people knowing I was bisexual. But I had no inclination to hold any banners or be a representative of any group of people. I knew what I wanted to be, a songwriter and a performer, and I felt that [bisexuality] became my headline over here for so long. America is a very puritanical place, and I think it stood in the way of so much I wanted to do.”

Source: Wikipedia

Who's that Queer?

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There have been few vocalists in the history of heavy metal whose singing style has been as influential and instantly recognizable as the “Metal God”, much less those of the gay variety. Rob Halford, the English singer-songwriter, and lead vocalist for the heavy metal band Judas Priest, has a voice that could give Mariah Carey a run for her money.

Halford has a nearly four octave vocal range, having recorded notes from D2 to B5, though it is rumored that he has reached notes as high as G#6 on at least one occasion during a performance in 1975. This queer is one of the most respected singers of heavy metal and rock music with a quasi-operatic vocal style and high-pitched screams. Halford is also remembered for his motorcyclist look.

In 1998, during an interview with MTV Halford revealed that he is gayl. His sexual orientation was known to Judas Priest band members, and was somewhat of an open secret among fans and the heavy metal press. Halford called the response from the heavy metal community "tremendous". This event was the subject of the song "Hats off to Halford" from the band Atom and His Package. Halford returned to his metal roots in 2000 with his band Halford and the widely acclaimed album Resurrection (2000). A live album in 2001 was followed up by 2002's Crucible.

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