The Greatest Gender Benders of Music Podcast

Freddie Mercury was a British singer-songwriter, and front man of the band 'Queen'. He captivated audiences with his larger-than-life vocal range and flamboyant stage presence before his tragic death from AIDS related illness in 1991. While Mercury's sexuality wasn't publicly acknowledged until after his death, his music and showmanship have come to symbolize celebration and acceptance of queer identities. He broke the rules, took the rigid concepts of gender and not only bent them, but transcended them.

Many people were exposed to a female presented as androgynous for the first time by the legendary Annie Lennox, most famous for her timeless, eerie and emotive "Sweet Dreams" (1983). According to Lennox, she wanted to generate a sense of being equal with her Eurythmics partner Dave. She certainly had an influential image, but maintained that it also served the purpose of making people think. This it certainly did!

Prince's early music drew attention for its fusion of religious and sexual themes, and he is now regarded by many as having been one of the world's greatest musicians. With style, swagger, attitude and musicality, Prince didn't just push the boundaries of gender and sexuality, he kicked straight through them- in platform heels- and helped open doors for so many others to do the same. 

K.D. Lang is a Canadian singer-songwriter best known for Ingénue, the 1992 album that earned her a number one single and a Grammy Award for best pop vocal. An androgynous lesbian rising to iconic success was not the norm in the 1980s, and her bold integrity is inseparable from her lasting legacy as an artist and musician. She never compromised comfort in her butch presentation, claiming it would be detrimental to her art, and unfair to her audience. With regard to modern pop-stars she told the BBC: "I don't know who they are necessarily, but when I listen to the radio, I hear a guy singing about a guy or whatever. It's all over the map. "It's almost the eradication of gender categorisation, which is beautiful, which is what some of us always wanted."

Born in 1947, David Bowie became one of the most influential musicians of the 20th Century, and continued to make and release music up until his death in 2016. Known for his fluid personality and musical adventurism, he was a fitting feature for the first episode of our Gender Benders series. With recordings from live concerts and interview snippets, take a look at the person behind the performance and gain some honest insight into why, perhaps, androgyny became a hallmark of David Bowie's life and legacy.