Jimmy Somerville

Scottish pop singer and songwriter, the former lead vocalist of "Bronski Beat" and "The Communards." Known for his gay activism and distinct soaring falsetto, he went solo in 1989, after separating from his singing partner, Sarah Jane Morris.

Somerville co-founded "Bronski Beat" in 1984, and their debut Top Ten single, "Smalltown Boy," dealt with his open homosexuality. Its follow-up "Why" made it to the UK Top Ten as well. After leaving the group and forming the "The Communards," he once again topped the charts with "Don’t Leave Me This Way," 1986. His lyrics addressed the rejection and isolation he felt as a gay youth, and although the theme of homosexuality ran through all his songs, they were commercially quite successful. His rendition of "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)," rocked into the Top Five in the late 1980s, and after releasing "To Love Somebody," 1991, Somerville retreated from his growing stardom and moved to San Francisco.

During the next few years, he dabbled briefly in film work and established a gay film company called "Normal Films." Their film Postcards from America was previewed at the New York Film Festival in 1994. He made his musical comeback in 1995 when he released the album "Dare to Love," telling his fans that he spent his time off discovering himself and learning to be part of a peer group touched by the anger and grief of AIDS. During the late 1990s, he toured across Europe, and in August 2000, released a new version of "Why."

He has also had an acting career, appearing in Sally Potter's 1992 film of Virginia Woolf's Orlando, in Isaac Julien's 1989 Looking for Langston, and in an episode of the cult science fiction television series Lexx ("Girltown").