Gender bender.

Was in the car last night, it was about 10pm, I was listening to a random am radio station and "Something" by The Beatles came on. And after a while it crossfaded into Shirley Bassey's cover of that exact song. Other than a rather exciting novelty, hearing the songs back to back jumped out at me for another reason - that is, Shirley Bassey's gender switching i.e. singing: "something in the way he moves", rather than the way she moves.

Now it ain't like this is uncommon. It happens all the time and the reasons to do this are really quite clear and quite understandable. "I'm a straight female who'd much rather sing about a man, thank you." And if applicable: "I'm Shirley Bassey and I can do whatever the hell I want."

But the reason it jumps out at me is because I've been listening to quite a bit of new musical theatre on the interweb lately ... and a lot of songs, love songs that is, change hands quite frequently from male singer to female singer and back again. Difference is, with each transaction, the lyrics don't change according to and regardless of gender.

WHA!? You say, a song originally sung by a man to a woman is being sung by a woman to a woman!?

Er, yes...?

I put it down to two things: 1) it's theatre, you're acting, we get it. Pop audiences assume songs are autobiographical. And even when a singer hasn't written the song - he or she chose it because it means something to him or her. Whatever that means. Also, in theatre circles, the lyricist > the singer. "Sing my words or go home... (betch!)".

...which quite nicely leads to 2) the strength of the gay community within "Broadway World". No matter who you're singing to even if you're professing your love to a member of both two sexes within the one night in song, no one is going to bat an eyelid. And if we're being serious, when a man sings about another man, there's a big chance he chose to do it for the same reasons Shirley Bassey wanted to sing about the way he moves.

Titus gets an A+++ for acting on this one. The gender non-switching thing doesn’t happen until 1:07 and then again at about 2:15. The references are scarce, but you register them... and then you start to imagine with this added detail what heck kind of a relationship this guy’s got himself into.

Same goes for this next one. It only happens ONCE at 2:40, he sings “Smelling boy in that empty twin bed”. This video’s phenomenal, may I add. If you’re a fan of Imogen Heap, look out for the influences – especially at 2:50. Watch it. Watch it NOW.

All the above examples are of songs which were originally written for a heterosexual context and have been re-arranged/transposed to be sung by the opposite gender – just randomly. Or maybe not so randomly. Homosexual songs will make some sort of impression on the countless billions who’ve been living on girl-boy, boy-girl songs for generations. Which I’m guessing is everyone. It’s just another way of saying to everyone that gay is normal and I can sing whatever the hell I like without having to change the lyrics.

I said before that switching gender pronouns wasn’t uncommon, but the same can be said for not switching gender pronouns. Think folk songs for girls sung by girls (see Cara Dillon’s “Black is the Colour”) or choral pieces where the entire SATB choir has to sing to one gender.

Ok, so I don’t have a big message about anything to do with music, theatre, society or culture. I just hope that one day when I sing “Lisa” in public – (which I will, you watch!) – I don’t get weird looks from old timers from the Shirley Bassey days. I think I’ll leave you now with a song which wasn’t transplanted from one sex to the other but was actually written as a duet between two homosexual male characters. Let’s hope you don’t die of squeeeee.

---Pâte Brisée